


Revenge Isn't Sweet

by lealamalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Attempted Murder, Bisexual Harry, Bisexuality, Bookstores, Hogwarts, Homophobia, Letters, M/M, Murder, Professor!Harry, Revenge, St Mungo's Hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-09 06:23:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 45,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8879377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lealamalfoy/pseuds/lealamalfoy
Summary: Draco is full of secrets, yet despite all this, Harry feels himself falling in love. However, secrets never stay buried forever, and eventually, they come back to haunt you in the worst possible ways.





	1. Dear Scarhead

**Author's Note:**

> im rly not happy with this, but it took me so long to complete and i dont want that work to be wasted, so im gonna keep it up but im sorry if its not as good as my other stuff. im overly critical, theres parts i like parts i dont, but have fun reading :((

* * *

Nervous was an understatement. As Harry walked through the old bookshop, his hands shook as they glided across the spines of the books, looking for anything useful. Since he took the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, he’d convinced himself he’ll be terrible at it; told himself that he’d be a useless teacher and on multiple occasions, he’d considered pulling out.

McGonagall had told Harry that Hogwarts was different now, and he was excited to go back to the place he called home for many years, and still does if he’s honest but that didn’t stop the fear.

During the summer, Harry had gone to every bookshop ever to get all the books he could get his hands on. He didn’t know how Hermione could handle reading so much, but with every book he would get a little bit of his confidence back.

He was scared of missing something, and he’d seen this shop with extremely old looking books so on a limb, he entered. It had the old book smell that was stronger in here than all of the other shops he’d been to, but there was something else he couldn’t put his finger on.

Harry paused, spotting a book named “ _The Darkest of the Dark Arts_ ” and pulled it off of the shelf. It was heavy and probably belonged in the older collection of books. It was extremely worn and Harry noticed this when he flicked through the book, the ink faded and even some pages missing.

“Well, well.”

Harry, on instinct, quickly slammed the book shut and turned around to where he had heard the voice, widening his eyes slightly at who he saw.

Smirking down at him was Draco Malfoy, his hair swept to one side and messier than Harry had ever seen before, yet still flawless compared to Harry’s own messy hair. He wore a tight fitting shirt that showed off his slim figure perfected and far too muggle for Harry’s brain to cope.

He knew he had remained silent for too long, the shock having taken over him and opened his mouth to speak. “Hi.” He managed, and cursed himself on the inside as soon as he said it.

Malfoy just sniggered and stepped closer, leaning closer to put a book back on the top shelf. Harry held his breath as he watched him reach up and really wished Malfoy wasn’t this close. He was always attractive in school, anyone could tell, but Harry had other things on his mind  back then, too busy to notice… But now, he could fully acknowledge that Malfoy was extremely attractive and was inches away from Harry, with his nice smelling aftershave and handsome pointy features and his... Dark Mark. Harry didn’t want to stare at it, but there it was, on full display.

Thankfully, Malfoy hadn’t noticed, too busy reading the title of the book in Harry’s hands and raising his eyebrow. “ _The Darkest of the Dark Arts_? I would have thought you’d know stuff that wouldn’t even be in that book.” Malfoy said, no malice in his aristocratic voice before he walked away to sit behind the desk at the back, kicking his legs up and propping them on the desk. Harry didn’t know if he was deliberately showing off his expensive looking leather shoes like the snobby brat he once was during their years at Hogwarts, but it still made him self-conscious of the tatty trainers he was currently wearing.

Harry frowned at him, not understanding why he was sat at that desk like that if he wasn’t showing off his shoes… and then he caught on. “Wait, you work here?”

“I own here.” Malfoy said back with a shrug and a roll of the eyes. “The Manor has so many books and why leave them to gather dust?”

Harry nodded, awkwardly stepping forward as an old lady tried to get behind him, huffing at him and muttering that “ _the youth’s of today have no respect for the elderly_.” Malfoy found the situation amusing, watching with a grin on his face as Harry moved closer to the desk, away from the old lady.

“How may I help you, Potter?” It felt weird, Malfoy saying his name without the bitter sounding tone that always came with it. After the war, people changed and maybe Malfoy had changed a lot too. If Harry was honest, it was like he was talking to a completely different person, and he wasn’t against it.

“I’m the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and I need all the help I can get.” Harry admitted in one breath, albeit a little against his will. It was like the fact that this was Malfoy made him want to talk more, and that was a scary prospect for Harry to deal with.

“Really? Because I heard you were a pretty good teacher back in fifth year with that Army.”

Harry felt his cheeks heat up and hoped that they didn’t give off a prominent red colour for Malfoy to see. “Did you just compliment me?” He asked quietly, now not believing that this conversation was even happening and he was having some strange dream.

“Don’t get used to it.” Malfoy swung his legs off of the desk dramatically and stood up, walking to the front of his desk and close to Harry again. “But, if you want help-” He glanced down at the book in his hand then made a motion to follow him before he strode off to the back room. Harry was left considering whether he should follow, standing in the middle of the shop like an idiot before he kicked into action, putting the book down and following timidly to see Malfoy searching for something on the shelves. “-this should be useful.” He picked up a small journal type book and handed it to Harry.

“What is it?” He asked as he gently ran his fingers over the leather cover before flicking through the pages of neat handwritten notes that he didn’t understand the meaning behind. It looked old and worn so he was as delicate as he could be but behind those pages, he felt a vibe of anger that didn’t deserve such a delicate hand.

“It’s been in my family for centuries, handed down from father to son. In there you’ll find counter-curses for curses that Voldemort didn’t even know.” Malfoy explained, the bitterness in his voice back but not directed at Harry. It was directed at the book. Harry glanced down at the page he was on and saw the list of curses coupled with the counter-curse, just like he’d said. “What can I say, Malfoy’s liked to protect their own.” He spat with pure venom, snapping his head to the side as so to not look at Harry and what was in his hands.

Harry closed the book and sighed, “I can’t take this.” He held the book out for Malfoy to take back, Malfoy holding his hands up so he couldn’t be forced to take it. It had too much emotion in, emotion that had turned into a magical residue that Harry could feel.

“I don’t want it. I don’t want to use it and I don’t want it in the wrong hands, so you can do what you want with it.” With that, he walked back into the main room. Harry was yet again stuck standing alone, this time looking down at the book in his hands. He couldn’t understand why Malfoy would give it to him, after everything.

As soon as Harry walked back into the main room, the book he was once holding was thrusted back into his arms. “You can keep this too.”

“Why? I mean, why give them to me?” Harry frowned as he looked at the two books in his hands.

“Call it a thank you, now get out of my shop before I continue being so bloody nice to you. I have a reputation to keep up, and I don’t need you tainting it.” He slumped back down at his desk and ran his hands through his hair, being far too attractive than intended.

Harry didn’t want to argue with Malfoy anymore, and he didn’t trust himself not to completely lose his mind at his ever growing attraction to Malfoy so turned and left with the two books, heading to his room at Ron and Hermione’s house. It was a spare bedroom, nothing special, but it kind of turned into Harry’s from the amount of times he’d been staying. It was kind of his new home, in a weird way.

“You’re back early.” Hermione commented from the sofa as soon as Harry walked in, her face buried in a book as usual. “Did you get what you needed?”

“Yeah.” Harry replied absentmindedly before entering his room. He sat on the bed and started looking through the little Malfoy journal again, this time going to the end and working backwards. About a quarter of it was still empty but when he found the familiar posh handwriting, he filled with sympathy. The last entries were different from the rest, more shaky and uneven. Harry knew the war was a bad time for everyone, but he couldn’t imagine what it was like to be around Voldemort constantly, living in the same house as him.

Harry put the book down on his night stand, understanding why Malfoy gave it away, why anyone would give something like that away, but he still didn’t understand why him. Malfoy could have easily given it to the Ministry, or St Mungo’s, or even McGonagall, so why Harry?

Despite the unanswered mystery of Malfoy’s motives, Harry kept the journal close, reading little bits when he had the chance. He felt more confident than ever for his job, as he knew over half of the counter-curses in there and he was slowly learning the ones he didn’t know.

Hermione had noticed this, though, and compared it to his obsession with Snape’s Potions textbook but this was a lot different, he just didn’t know how to explain it.

Hogwarts had a different feel about it, a safer feel. Perhaps it was the lack of fear about what would happen during the year and what way would Voldemort try to kill him. Harry was flattered by the amount of cheering when McGonagall announced he would be the Defence Against the Dark Arts, especially the amount from the Slytherin table. Things had changed, he told himself, and he knew this too well already.

The Malfoy Journal, what Harry had called the notebook, remained on his desk during his first lesson, and somehow, it’s presence in the room gave him confidence. He knew what he was doing, that’s why he got the job.

“Thank you, Professor Potter! You’re the best teacher ever!” The first year Ravenclaw smiled happily before leaving the classroom with their friends and talking about all the amazing things Harry had done during the lesson that demonstrated what a magnificent wizard he truly was.

If he was honest, he wasn’t quite used to people calling him “Professor Potter” but after a month of teaching, he was completely used to it. He was a natural teacher, anyone could see that.

It was the weekend and Harry was sat in his office marking some of his fourth year’s essays. He didn’t mind spending his Saturday doing work, as any school work to him just came naturally and relaxed him. Although, he knew in a few months that opinion would be completely different.

“Professor?”

Harry heard the young voice from the door and looked up, putting his quill to the side. “Come in.” He smiled at the boy in his third year whom he recognised to be Robbins, a talkative Slytherin with a tendency to ask questions nobody else is brave enough to. He had to admit, he was surprised to find out Robbins wasn’t in Gryffindor with that amount of bravery.

“I was wondering if I could ask you something?” Robbins wondered as he sat down in front of Harry nervously.

“Go ahead, I don’t bite.” Harry tried to joke to defuse the tension. He really should learn to stop doing that.

“Well, in History of Magic yesterday we were talking about the war, and I was a little confused.” Harry raised his eyebrow. “Okay, very confused. Professor Binns didn’t really explain much, or maybe he did and I couldn’t understand what he was going on about with a voice like that but still. I just don’t understand how You-Know-Who died.”

Harry sighed and leaned forward, wondering how he would explain this to make it understandable. “It’s very complicated.” _Good start_ , Harry thought to himself. “You see, when Dumbledore was killed, it was Draco Malfoy that disarmed him, not Severus Snape, so he was the true owner of the Elder Wand. And then I disarmed Malfoy, making the Elder Wand mine. Voldemort didn’t know it was disarming that changed the wands ownership so killed Snape in order to make it his and when it came down to it, the Elder Wand couldn’t kill its true owner so the spell rebounded and Voldemort died.”

Robbins nodded along slowly, but he still looked puzzled. “But why didn’t you die?”

“You mean in the Forbidden Forest?” Robbins nodded again and there was brief moment of silence as Harry worked out how to word his reply. “When the killing curse hit me, it killed the Horcrux inside me but I had the opportunity to come back. If it wasn’t for Narcissa Malfoy and her love for her son, Voldemort would have killed me properly.”

“It all comes back to Draco Malfoy, doesn’t it?” Robbins announced, making Harry properly speechless this time. He had never thought of this, but it did all lead back to Malfoy. “It’s funny. You practically hated each other but you both saved each other's lives.” Robbins stood and with a wave, left the room, not realising the chaos he’d left behind.

Harry was no longer thinking about his marking, and was now solely thinking about Draco Malfoy and that bloody journal on his right. Malfoy’s words rang through his head, _I have a reputation to keep up, and I don’t need you tainting it_ , and Harry thought _fuck it_ . He picked up his quill again, but instead of marking the work, he got out a blank piece of parchment and wrote _Owl Me_ in his messy scrawl before tucking it into the journal and making his way to the gates.

As soon as he got to the gates, he apparated to Malfoy’s bookshop and with a deep breath, walked inside, the familiar smell of books and apples greeting him.

“Malfoy?” He called as he glanced around the shop, not spotting the blonde until he exited the back room, looking the same as he did a couple of weeks ago but this time wearing a long sleeve shirt, embracing the colder weather that was slowly joining them.

“Oh. You’re back. Still having trouble teaching?” Malfoy asked as he started to organise some of the messier shelves, not bothering to look at Harry.

“No. I wanted to return this.” Harry put the journal down on the desk and waited for Malfoy to finally turn around and look, which took a little longer than he would have liked.

“I told you, I don’t want it.” He picked it up and tried to give it back to Harry, but Harry just stepped backwards and put his arms behind his back.

“It’s yours. It’s something that you should be handing down to your kids in years to come, not to someone you spent the majority of your life hating.” Malfoy opened and closed his mouth, not being able to find any reply to Harry’s words which only left Harry room to continue. “I get that you don’t want it in the wrong hands, but it’s part of your life and-”

“Maybe I don’t want it to be part of my life anymore!” Malfoy snapped, waving his arms around angrily. “It symbolises everything bad that happened in my childhood and I want nothing to do with it!”

“Can’t you turn it into something good?” Harry pressed on, desperately wanting to get Malfoy to understand where he was coming from. “Keep adding to it when you find new counter-curses so the Malfoy generations to come have some sort of defence to prevent them going through the same shit. If we threw away everything that reminded us of our childhoods, we’d have nothing left.”

Harry’s words seemed to have an effect as Malfoy had considerably calmed down and gently leaned back to sit on the desk behind him, staring at the journal in his hands.

“I haven’t written in it, you can check. I’m not a Malfoy, but you are.” Harry gave Malfoy a smile, which Malfoy surprisingly returned. Harry done what he needed to do so left the shop, but glanced back to see Malfoy opening the journal to find the note Harry had left tucked inside.

Malfoy stared at it for what seemed like ages before scrunching it in his hand, throwing it at the wall and getting back to what he was doing.

Harry didn’t know why he got his hopes up, but at least he’d done some good, it was the least he could do as, Robbins pointed out, if it wasn’t for Malfoy, he wouldn’t be alive.

* * *

 

Draco, for some unknown reason, opened the notebook to check the final entries despite believing that Potter hadn’t written in it. That was when he saw the scrap bit of parchment with the most horrifically written _Owl Me_ . Why the fuck did Potter want Draco to owl him? They weren’t friends, they will never be friends. All _this_ was was Draco trying and failing to get rid of the stupid journal and Potter being too much of a fucking Gryffindor to just let Draco forget the bloody thing ever existed.

In his anger, he crushed the parchment in his hand before throwing it at the wall. It was satisfying, but he did feel like a child again. The child that would do anything in his power to get Potter’s attention then get furious when his plan backfired.

Draco resisted the urge to _Incendio_ the note as he went back to work and avoiding the area of the room where the note sat.

It was a couple of hours later when Luna turned up with her weird sense of fashion and perseverant bubbly attitude that stayed even when Draco was on the phone to a very difficult customer that was refusing to budge from their far too high price. Luna’s only response was to blame the customer’s aggravating attitude on some weird creature that Draco had never heard of before.

Luna liked to come into the shop often and find a random book to read, sometimes upside down, as Draco worked, keeping him company and occasionally commenting on what she was reading or whatever mood Draco was in. Their friendship started because Luna was always polite to him when he went down to the Malfoy cellars and whenever he had the opportunity, he gave her and her fellow prisoners food and helped them however he could, whether it was healing wounds or just providing company.

“Draco?”

Draco slammed his quill down loudly, frustrated at the form he was filling in and not Luna, but still felt his temper was uncalled for. “What is it, Luna?” He asked calmly and examined her curious face.

“What’s that?” She pointed over to where Potter’s crumpled up note was left and Draco didn’t reply. He didn’t feel like he needed to explain himself.

Thankfully, Luna dropped the subject and went back to her upside-down reading of the book about mythical creature sightings. _Typical Luna_ , Draco thought with admiration as he went back to his work.

Another hour later found Draco and Luna sat in a Muggle pub, now joined by Pansy and Blaise, drinking wine together. Pansy was currently winning, being on her fourth glass of the expensive red she insisted to buy whereas Luna was still on her first, sipping it occasionally and making a sound of confusion mixed with mild disgust. The contrast between the two girls always made Draco laugh, while he and Blaise were equally on their second glass.

“The cheek of it!” Pansy exclaimed as she took another “ _sip_ ” of her wine. She called it a sip, Draco suggested it was more like a large gulp. “What does he do at Christmas? Give all his presents back because they were the ones to buy it?”

Blaise let out a scoff type laugh behind his wine at Pansy’s words while Luna looked in deep thought, like she was actually considering the prospect.

Pansy always knew Draco too well and as soon as he walked in, she knew something was bothering and forced it out of him. It may have taken a glass of wine to do it, but she still got there.

“He’s an irritating prat.” Draco commented just because he could and finished his glass. He never normally liked drinking fast, preferring to enjoy his drinks properly but talking about Potter made him want to catch up with Pansy.

“You gave him part of your soul.” Luna’s dreamy voice caught all three of their attention.

Draco choked on his wine at her words and widened his eyes. “I did not!”

“But Draco, you did. All the book’s owners were Malfoy’s and each owner’s magical signature rubbed off on it. Heirlooms are very delicate things, especially ones originating in magical families. Harry probably felt very overwhelmed with such an item and gave it back because he knew it could only belong in the hands of a Malfoy.”

The three of them were rendered silent at Luna’s explanation of the situation, watching as she acted like she hadn’t really said anything of importance and attempted to take another sip of her wine.

This action gave Draco the idea to have more of his. He had no idea how it was full again but guessed it was most likely Pansy’s doing, who was staring at Luna like she was trying to solve the mystery of the Ravenclaw.

“She has a point.” Now all eyes were on Blaise. “If you had given it to me, I would have thrown it back in your face and told you to get fucked.” He shrugged and followed Luna’s actions by pretending he had said nothing of importable and sipped his wine.

Draco huffed and finished his glass of wine, looking at his three friends around him, specifically Pansy who was back staring Luna down.

“Bloody Potter.” Draco muttered into his wine. It was good wine but it wasn’t what he needed. What he needed was to get completely off his head and forget Potter ever existed, just like he did when Potter first came into his shop. “Who wants to get pissed?” No one replied. Sighing, Draco looked at them all. Luna would say no, because it’s Luna, and he was sure Blaise had work in the morning which Draco didn’t have as a problem. If he got too pissed, he could just not open. Pansy, on the other hand, was still staring at Luna, he was surprised no one had noticed yet.

“Come on, Pansy.” Draco stood and pulled Pansy to her feet, forcing her to look away from Luna. “See you losers later.” He called back to Luna and Blaise before pushing Pansy in front of him, directing her out of the pub and down the street. “Honestly, could you be more gay?”

“Bi!” Pansy snapped back and crossed her arms as they walked down the cobble street. Draco had no idea how she hadn’t fallen over in those heels, the falling over being for later, when she’ll be much more intoxicated. “You’re one to talk though. _Potter, Potter, precious Potter_.”

“I do not talk like that!” Draco protested, sounding like he was having a tantrum. “And then there’s you, Pansy _I’m going to stare at Luna like a mad woman_ Parkinson.” Draco was impressed with his impression of his shorter friend, who wasn’t much shorter with those heels, and he could tell Pansy agreed because she didn’t say anything back.

When they got into the nearest club, Pansy muttered to Draco to get the first round as she went off to sit somewhere. Draco decided that they both deserved the strongest alcohol to drown their sorrows and many shots and strange concoctions later, they were dancing in the middle of the room. They thought it was dancing when in reality it was more like swaying while hugging tightly.

“How long?” Draco questioned into Pansy’s ear, holding onto her tighter so they couldn't pull away and look at each other's faces. They were never good at emotions.

“Not long. She's just so weird and it's strangely attractive.” Pansy tried to explain despite knowing Draco wouldn't understand. He never understood girls, which would perfectly explain what happened next. “How did you know?”

“You used to look at me like that.”

Pansy pulled away abruptly and looked into Draco’s eyes, Draco looking back. Her brown eyes so full of emotion; anger, hurt, longing, but mostly amusement, of all things.

“Oh, you do make me laugh.” She giggled before walking away towards the bar, stumbling on her way. Draco always regarded her as someone that would need a lot of alcohol to get drunk, and there she was, completely gone. Perhaps she hid it well, something Draco too has learnt to do far too well.

“Hey.” A low voice said from behind Draco, their warm sweaty body pressed up against Draco’s back, their hands running down Draco’s arms until holding onto his hands. They both moved to the music together, the stranger leading Draco while resting his head on Draco’s shoulder. Normally, Draco was a careful person but in the mood he was in, he encouraged the situation, leaning back into the man, his head resting in the crock of his neck. “You're gorgeous.” The man muttered into Draco’s ear before kissing his neck, a kiss that turned into more of a nibble.

That was all Draco needed to kick him into action, turning around fast to slam his lips against the strangers in a drunken mess, noses bumping and teeth clashing.

Before he knew it, Draco’s shirt had been roughly grabbed and he was being led away from the dance floor, while still maintaining contact via their lips. He would have complimented him for that if they weren't so preoccupied.

Draco didn't know where they were going, and didn't care. Pansy used to say his brain was always in his dick, and maybe this one time, it was, because Draco’s dick wanted this.

A door was slammed open and Draco was pushed inside, his eyes struggling to adjust to the bright artificial light of the room. However, in the light, Draco could see the stranger clearly, his dark brown messy hair, muscular build and lustful green eyes, yet not as green as Potter’s. Draco's own eyes grew wider. Why did he care about comparisons to Potter?

The thought of Potter was quickly removed from his thoughts as the attractive stranger pushed him up against the sinks, hooking his arms around Draco’s waist, lifting him up and placing him sitting on the sink. Draco wrapped his legs around him to pull him closer, cupping his face and kissing him deeply while he felt hands fumbling with his jacket, his movements practically begging for it to come off.

Draco gave in, letting the man strip the top half of him naked, but in return, Draco yanked the man’s sweaty vest top over his head, revealing the ripped body underneath. Draco was too busy admiring him that he didn't realise he was slipping off his trousers, followed by his pants. He only caught on when he felt a hand stroke his hot arousal, causing him to moan loudly and grab onto the tap next to him. All Draco could do was watch as the man smirked before lowering himself, massaging the base of his cock while swirling his tongue around the tip before wrapping his whole mouth around the hard cock, his teeth gently scraping the shaft.

Draco cried out, one hand holding the man's hair tightly with the other still grabbing the tap. He was sure the metal was digging into the palm of his hand, but he didn't care, because whatever the man was doing felt fucking amazing. Draco's eyes were glued shut when the wave of pleasurable bliss came over him.

He'd given the man no warning, but he was in the same state. Draco hadn't even noticed that his spare hand was being used to wank himself off.

He stood, a smug smirk playing on his lips, a smirk Draco would have owned if he wasn't trying to catch his breath from one of the best blowjobs he’d had in awhile.

“I'll be back in a moment, handsome.” The man ran a finger down Draco’s cheek before turning and entering one of the toilet cubicles. This gave Draco the opportunity to quickly pull up his trousers and sling his top and jacket back on before exiting the bathroom, scanning the room for Pansy.

His best friend was stood sipping a cocktail by herself when Draco stormed over, grabbing her hand and dragging her out of the club.

“You could've let me finish that!” Pansy complained, annoying that Draco had forced her to not finish her drink. Draco didn't care though, his mind all over the place. Pansy just rolled her eyes and took Draco to her house, slinging him on the sofa before going into her own room.

The next thing Draco knew was someone was making a racket with ceramics, provoking his head to scream at him. He groaned in pain and rubbed his face, only to groan again at the sharp pain in his palm.

“Morning!” Pansy called from the kitchen, the door wide open so Draco could hear her banging about. Draco slung one of the sofa cushions over his head in an attempt to block out the noise, it not occurring to him that he could easily cast a silencing charm with the wand in his jacket pocket.

Draco felt a tap on his arm and gingerly lowered the cushion to see Pansy smiling innocently at him, like she hadn't been making loads of noise just to make his hangover worse.

“Want this?” Pansy lifted a cup of coffee up for Draco to see, adding, “it's got hangover potion in it.” She went to hand it to Draco, but as soon as he tried to hold it, he winced at the pain in his palm. “Let me see that.” Draco’s wrist was yanked towards her as she examined the purple bruise on his palm, and then it all came back to him.

“How degrading.” Draco muttered to himself as he flung the cushion back over his face at the memory of last night, vowing to never drink again. A vow he will surely break soon.

“What's degrading?” She asked, healing the bruise the best she could. “Would this have anything to do with that guy last night?”

Draco could feel his face redden. There was no backing out of this. “He gave me a blowjob in the men's.” He mumbled quickly and quieting, praying that Pansy didn't hear her.

“Classy.” Pansy let out a quiet snigger before he could hear her footsteps walking away. “Drink that coffee. I'm not having you mope around here all day.”

But that's exactly what Draco did. He drank the coffee and stayed curled up on Pansy’s sofa all day, ashamed in himself that his actions had become so common. He was thankful that he got out of there when he did, knowing that whoever that man was would have wanted to go further and obliterate Draco’s dignity completely. However, he probably would have been a very good fuck.

Draco vividly remembered the man looking up at him with his green eyes, and cursed his mind for linking that with Potter. Then his mind drifted to wondering what Potter would be like to fuck, or be fucked by, and at that point he wanted to scream at how frustrating his mind was. Draco did not and never would want to fuck Potter. And so Draco stayed sulking all day, and found himself falling asleep on the soft sofa yet again.

“Oi!” Draco jumped at the loud voice and cracked his eyes open to see Pansy glaring at him. “Your twenty four hours are up. Out.”

Draco muttered something under his breath that went along the lines of “I was just having a nap” as he grabbed his jacket and sulked over to the fireplace. As soon as he got back into his own house, he had a long shower to return himself back to his usual pristine self.

He ignored the urge to take another day off and headed back to his shop, knowing he’d have to deal with a heap of paperwork concerning the difficult customer selling him his old books. Everything in the shop was how he left it from the messy back room to the scrunched up piece of parchment that had been left to gather dust over the weekend.

The moment he saw it, he knew what he had to do and determinedly, he picked up his quill.

* * *

 

Harry had just taught his first lesson of the day when the black owl flew through the window of his office and perched itself on his desk, releasing the letter it was holding. Harry didn't recognise the bird, and it left just as quickly as it came. Frowning, Harry examined the letter. The front had his name written neatly and nowhere on the letter did it indicate who it was from. Harry wasn't expecting any letters, so when he heard the students in his next lesson entering the classroom, he discarded the letter in the draw of his desk, leaving it for later.

Like always, his lessons distracted him and he completely forgot about the letter, getting on with his day like it didn't exist. He did his teaching, he did his marking and he even had time to have a fire-call with Ron, mostly spending the time having a go about the new Weasley product. Harry didn't know what it was and he didn't care because he'd confiscated at least ten of them in the past week for disrupting his lessons. Whatever it was, it would always be set off in the middle of the class, distracting everyone as it made them start telling their secrets when they breathed in the pale blue smoke. On multiple occasions, Harry suspected they let it off only to see what Harry would say but as soon as it would go off, he’d protect himself with a magical shield and watch as his class would spill their petty secrets for the next five minutes.

“It's just a bit of fun.” Ron told him with a big grin, then George would interrupt telling him to stop turning into such a “boring teacher” and to stop taking away their products from the students. In his drawer was an array of Weasley products that he’d confiscated from his classroom, he had no problem with them outside his classroom and would even have a laugh at some of the things his students would get up to in their free time.

Harry was reading the latest _Daily Prophet_ and rolling his eyes at practically every article when there was a gentle tap on the door. He put down his newspaper and opened the door to see a gang of Gryffindors looking up at him.

“May we have our Weasley products back?” The one at the front blurted out, his eyes begging.

Harry sighed and went over to his desk, opening the drawer to give their stuff back when he saw the letter and paused, lifting it up and frowning at it.

“Professor?” The student pressed on, snapping Harry back to reality. He quickly gave them their stuff back with a warning to never use them in his classroom before sitting at his desk, staring at the letter.

With a deep breath, he tore into the letter and pulled out the posh parchment.

_Dear Scarhead,_

_I have no idea why you begged me to owl you, but I'm guessing it’s most likely because you have no friends and lack some decent company so here I am taking pity on you._

_You are an insufferable git for giving back the journal and if I ever see you again, I will throw whatever I can get my hands on at your annoying face._

_I hope for your students sake that you remembered how to adequately teach and you don't brag about your “amazing achievements” like, for example, Lockhart would. Except, Lockhart took pride in his appearance and unfortunately, you do not._

_Nethertheless, I’d like to know what exactly it is that you want._

_Pansy would like to inform you that you’re still a noble prat whilst Luna says hello and hopes to also owl you soon. Maybe you can bug her instead of me._

_~Draco Malfoy._

Harry read the letter at least three times, not being able to comprehend that Malfoy actually owled and despite the whole letter being riddled with insults, Harry felt warm inside. It wasn't like the insults from years ago because now he felt a sense of fondness, which he really shouldn't be feeling but he did.

Without a second thought, he picked up his quill and started writing his reply, a smile growing on his face as he did. His messy scrawl was nothing compared to Malfoy’s refined handwriting. Harry found an envelope and stuffed the letter into it before starting his trek over to the owlery. He knew he should get his own owl but it didn't feel right after Hedwig, so Harry got used to using the school owls.

“Hello, sir!” A girl in the corridor smiled at him as he passed, and he graciously smiled back.

Harry was halfway towards the owlery when he came across a group of students surrounding another group, smaller in size and numbers.

“Let us past.” One of the smaller, more confident ones asked the larger group but when she tried to move past them, one of the boys pushed her back.

“Not until we’ve taught you a lesson, death eater scum.”

“Excuse me.” Harry had seen enough to know the general situation and stomped over, standing in front of the larger group. “Would you like to explain yourself?”

“They're _Slytherins._ ” The main, blond boy spat the word with such hatred as he glared at them behind Harry. He reminded Harry of someone. “They shouldn't be allowed back here! They didn't help us, they helped the death eaters.”

Harry was the one glaring down at the boy now. “You aren't old enough to have been here when the battle took place, are you?”

“No, but my uncle was. Zacharias Smith.”

Harry felt a little smirk growing on his face. “Ah, I remember your uncle. I bet he didn't mention the fact that many Slytherins stayed to fight for _our_ side, _against_ the death eaters whilst your uncle, the coward as he is, ran away.”

Harry watched as the boy’s jaw dropped and he looked back at his friends who now seemed very pissed off with him for leading them into this mess.

“Detention. Tomorrow at 5pm.” Harry told the larger group before stepping past them. He was about to walk away when he added, “And ten points from all of you.”

Harry spent the rest of the journey to the owlery thinking over what just happened. Maybe opinions hadn't changed much at all and people were stuck falling back into believing the stereotypes Harry and many others fought hard to remove. The war was supposed to change things, prevent something like that from happening again but there were still divides in the community.

Harry felt himself losing hope but remembered why he was going to the owlery in the first place, and smiled. Things truly had changed, in the subtlest of ways.

* * *

 

_Dear Ferret Face,_

“He called me ferret face!” Draco exclaimed as soon as he read the first line of the letter.

“In fairness, you did call him _Scarhead_.” Blaise replied back, sat on Draco’s sofa with a glass of Firewhiskey in his hand. Draco had one too, but had neglected it to read Potter’s reply.

“Don’t be fair to Potter.” Draco ignored Blaise’s eyeroll and continued to read the letter.

_It’s so nice to see you caring about my friends, they are very well, thank you for asking, and if I am correct, I was the one taking pity on you. You just seemed so lonely in your shop that I thought I’d give you the gift of my company._

_If we are making comparisons to Lockhart, I would be looking closer to home if I were you. You and your hair. I wouldn’t want to brag, like you would, but my students love me._

_Tell Pansy that I’m taking “noble prat” as a compliment, and although I love Luna’s friendship, you are just far too easy to annoy, Malfoy, but I will owl her when I get the chance. I never knew you two were friends._

_Perhaps, we could forget about the past and us too could be friends. I look forward to hearing what mildly amusing insult you come up with next._

_-Harry Potter._

Draco’s only response was to huff and put the letter down so he could down his Firewhiskey. This gave Blaise the chance to pick it up and read it himself, occasionally glancing at Draco with that look he always used to give him. The look that Draco still didn’t know what it meant.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Draco said bitterly before snatching the letter away, scanning his eyes over it before tucking it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

“Aren’t you going to reply?”

Draco only shrugged in response, not wanting to be too eager in his reply. After all, this was _Potter_ he was owling and he still had the lingering anger towards him. Though, it never really was anger, or it was but not the anger everyone assumed. Draco pour himself another Firewhiskey and gulped it down, feeling the satisfying burn down his throat.

“Fucking Potter.” Draco muttered before walking off into his bedroom, faintly hearing Blaise say something to himself and then the front door closing loudly.

This was all Potter’s fault. He always fucked with Draco’s brain and now he was back again to continue the torture.

With a huff, Draco shrugged of his jacket and slung it onto the bed before pulling his top over his head, that too being slung on the bed. He took a deep breath and stepped in front of his mirror, tracing his hand along the faint criss cross of scars left by Potter. His hand then moved to above his right hip where the jagged, broad, deep scar sat.

Draco’s hand quickly dropped at the memory of when he received the scar and instinctively he grabbed the nearest blanket, throwing it over the mirror before stripping completely and entering his bathroom. He turned on the shower and didn’t care that it was too cold, the feeling of the water running over his body relaxed him. As he washed himself with the soap, he kept his eyes shut, refusing to let himself see the scars that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Draco thought about Potter again. He didn’t understand what it was about the Gryffindor that confused him so much. There was always something between them, something different to what he shared with everyone else but even he didn’t truly know how to explain it. Blaise’s knowing glances plagued him, annoyed that his friend knew something he didn’t, and to ask would be worse than just not knowing. Draco would have to find out what it was by himself.

Draco got lost in his thoughts and when he snapped back to reality, he turned the shower off, letting his wet hair drip down his face, the tips getting in his eyes. He patted himself down while doing his best not to look at the scars. The last thing he needed was more memories provoked.

He came to the conclusion that he’d had too much Firewhiskey. This conclusion was strengthened when he walked into a table and cursed loudly as he stubbed his toe.

“Potter!” Draco blamed him for what felt like the millionth time that day and flopped onto his bed, letting the mix of alcohol, bad memories and tiredness take a hold and drag him into unconsciousness.

_Draco was lying on a bed. It wasn’t his own bed, the sheets not being the expensive silk he was used to but despite that, it was comfortable. It felt safe. It felt like home._

_“Draco…” A voice next to him muttered quietly as a hand stroked his hair. Their voice was comforting. It made Draco happy._

_He smiled and turned towards the voice, finding his own lips meeting the another’s. It was gentle, sweet and most of all, made Draco feel good. His hand unconsciously moved to the other’s hip and pulled the body closer, the warmth reassuring Draco that this was real. He wasn’t imagining it._

_“I love you.” It was quiet, but Draco still heard it. A wide smile spread across his lips. If it was anyone else, he would have turned away from such a confession, such commitment, but he didn’t, because he knew, deep down, he felt the same._

_As his lips moved to speak the words in return, the door burst open and-_

Draco jolted awake, sweaty and out of breath. He looked beside him and he was alone. There was no one there stroking his hair or telling him that he was loved. It was a dream. A nightmare, really.

He layed back down but the memory of the nightmare prevented him from sleeping more. He gave up quickly and stomped over to his potion cabinet in search for any type of Sleep Replenishment potion. There was only one left, so as he gulped it down, he noted to make some more soon. Having Snape as a Godfather really did have its uses. Maybe his father knew his life would be a wreck from the shit he got dragged into so appointed Snape as his Godfather so at least he’d have a way to cover it up. Typical Malfoy.

Draco really didn’t have anything better to do but to go to his shop, giving himself at least two hours to organise the mess that it always was and finally complete the paperwork for the new books. He hated paperwork, it was all so tedious and pointless, especially when he was extra careful in reading over _all_ the terms and conditions, consuming his time dramatically.

It wasn’t until much later in the day when he felt the feeling of parchment in his jacket pocket that he remembered why he was in work so early. He was amazed at how he’d managed to suppress such a thing.

He pulled out the letter and resisted the urge to screw it up and throw it at the wall like he did with the last note from Potter. It was always easiest to take his anger out on Potter, because he always threw it back with some snarky insult that Draco looked forward to hearing, not that he’d tell anyone else that.

“Oh, how I’d love to throw a book at your stupid head.” Draco said to himself about Potter, then shook his head. Potter was finally sending him mad. And after consideration, Draco couldn’t be certain he was against the idea of madness.

* * *

 

Harry was woken up by something nipping at his hand. He opened his eyes to see a black blur next to his hand and reached for his glasses to see it was Malfoy’s owl perched on the bed. The owl dropped a letter into Harry’s palm before flying out of the open window.

Harry cast a quick tempus charm and realised he had about ten minutes before the start of his first lesson. Cursing to himself, he jumped out of bed and did his best to get ready in the small amount of time he had. He didn't know how he had slept so late in but if it wasn't for Malfoy’s owl, he'd probably still be asleep as his students waited to be taught.

His first class of the day was first years so he didn't need to explain anything complicated so he could freely think about Malfoy without endangering the class too much. They were currently practicing on the _Lumos_ charm and had all the theory knowledge to do it correctly, along with assistance from Harry. However, on most occasions, whenever a student needed help they’d turn to their friend who’d show them how to do it. It made Harry think of Hermione when she was their age.

Harry was excited to read Malfoy’s letter. He never imagined himself to be feeling excited over something to do with Malfoy that wasn’t his pain or getting him in trouble. They weren’t kids anymore. They weren’t anything like the innocent children sat in his class. They’d been through far too much for any normal person to handle, and both still come out of it relatively sane.

Harry wondered what made Malfoy want to start his book shop, apart from the obvious ‘too many books at the Manor gathering dust’. He could have easily sold them off and lived off of the money made instead of running the shop himself. Did he have any employees? Or was it just him?

Harry was anxious for the class to end so he could read the letter before his next class, curious as to what new facts he’ll learn about Malfoy with this letter. He had the first one stashed away in the lowest desk drawer, the one with the wards. He didn’t know why he wanted to keep it safe, he just did. If he was honest, most of the time he didn’t know the reasons for his actions.

The lesson had ended and Harry watched as the last first year left the room before eagerly ripping open the envelope and pulling out the letter. The first thing Harry noticed was that it wasn’t as neat as the first letter. It was still neat, neater than Harry’s writing could ever be, but it looked far more casual.

_Dear Scarhead,_

_I’m glad the truth amuses you. If I tell you your hair makes you look like you’ve been dragged through a bush on a particular windy day you will be laughing so much that your sides will be splitting. I’d rather care about what my hair looks like then have_ that _sat on my head. You really must sort something out with your hair because it’s simply disgraceful._

_I will alert Luna to ignore all owls for the foreseen future so she will not have to endure the torture of talking to you._

_I do not know why you would want to be friends with me, considering everything, but I suppose we could come to some agreement. I’ll even see if I have a book on how to tame your hair._

_Please don’t die from laughter._

_~Draco Malfoy_

Harry felt a smile grow on his face and a small warmth fill his heart. Harry deduced that he asked for the thorough critique of his hair as payback for the comparison he made with Malfoy’s hair and Lockhart.

He read the last sentence again. ‘ _Everything_ ’ could have been referring to their school rivalry, or the war and the opposite sides they were on. But Harry came to the conclusion that everything was, indeed, everything.

Harry could hear the chatter of his next class outside in the corridor and tucked the letter away with the intention to reply at lunch. With a flick of his wand, the classroom door swung open and a bunch of sixth years piled in. Harry recognised Zacharias Smith’s nephew sitting at the back with another boy that also had detention with him later, both of them glaring at the Slytherins in front. Harry could already tell that this hour would be straining.

He was teaching how to resist the Imperius Curse, of all things, and it hand only been ten minutes before he heard “None of those Slytherins need to bother learning this, they’d all follow Dark Wizards willingly.”

“Right!” Harry snapped, the whole room going silent around him. “I’ve had it with you!” He yelled at Smith angrily. “This is exactly why wars start, because people like you continuously stereotype people! Not all Slytherins are bad, and not all Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are good. Take Peter Pettigrew, or Quirinus Quirrell, they were supporters of Voldemort and not Slytherin. And what about Regulus Black, who gave his life at age eighteen so Voldemort would be weaker, and guess what? He was in Slytherin!” Harry stopped to take a deep breath, not anticipating that he’d lose control in such a way. Smith looked speechless at his outburst, and rightly so.

Smith remained silent for the rest of the lesson, and looked scared every time Harry looked his way. Harry really wouldn’t mind having words with Zacharius about his impression on his nephew.

He was thankful when the hour was up and the sixth years left the room. He was about to start writing his reply to Malfoy when he heard a tap on the door. He didn’t mean to groan with annoyance, but he did anyway.

“Is this is bad time?” Robbins asked cautiously and Harry instantly felt guilty.

“No, not at all. Come in.” He motioned for Robbins to take a seat with a smile. “Was it something Binns said?”

“No, actually.” Robbins sat cross-legged on the chair and tapped his knee, like he was considering what to say and how to say it. “Well, the thing is, I was wondering if there would be a dueling club of some sort? I don’t get things easily, and I prefer practical application so I can get my head around things and, well, yeah…”

Harry listened to what he said and realised that this might be the reason Robbins asked him so many questions about the war, so he had an example to apply his knowledge to. He wondered how many other people preferred this method of studying.

“It’s funny you should say that, as I have a guest coming in on Friday. If I can, I’ll try convince him to duel with me.” Harry said it before he could fully think about what he was committing to.

“Really?” Robbins grinned widely, relief written all over his face.

“Hopefully.” Harry didn’t want to take the boy’s hope away as he understood where he was coming from. He watched Robbins leave the room with a bounce in his step and resisted the urge to bang his head against his desk. Why did he make such commitments when he knew full well he didn’t know he could deliver?

He looked down at the blank parchment and sighed. The war had changed people, and maybe, just maybe, Malfoy would agree to this.

* * *

 


	2. Lockhart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you all had a lovely christmas and i wish you all a happy new year (here's to 2017 being better than 2016)

* * *

Hogsmeade was cold on Friday mornings. Harry had never realised how cold it was until now. His warming charms were doing fuck all to help as he waited for Malfoy to potentially show up.

McGonagall had heard of Harry’s visitor and thought it was such a great idea that she’d get practically the whole school involved, so Malfoy not showing up would really land him in the shit. He hadn’t told McGonagall that the visitor was Malfoy, or that there was a slim chance of them actually coming. Yes, he’d sent about three letters asking if he would do this massive favour for him, but he hadn’t received a single letter back.

He was stood by the Apparition point, where he told Malfoy to apparate to. It was nearing the end of November and the ground was covered with thick snow already, making the cold wind worse and somehow magic didn’t keep it from affecting Harry.

If he wasn’t already cold, the snowball that hit him square in the face would have definitely done the trick to make him cold. It felt like every bit of snow had bitten his face and now it had gone completely numb.

The coldness was easily counteracted by the hearty laugh from his attacker, turning to see Malfoy stood next to him, a massive satisfied grin on his face. Hearing him laugh and seeing him smile seemed to warm him up, just like the letters did, and he found himself no longer complaining about the cold.

“I said I would throw the nearest thing I could get my hands on at your face, didn’t I?” Malfoy said like he was proving that he meant what he said, and Harry rolled his eyes back. At least it was snow, and not a hard, damaging object, not that Malfoy would throw anything like that at anyone. Or maybe he would. He didn’t really know Malfoy yet, despite knowing him since he was eleven.

“What did you want me here for, again? I was kind of ignoring your owls.” He shoved his hands into his coat pockets and Harry didn’t know how he wasn’t cold when he was wearing a pair of tight fitting pants that showed how skinny he was and a thin looking white shirt. Although, his coat did look like it was made of wool, but it flapping open in the wind wouldn’t have helped much. Perhaps his warming charms worked, unlike Harry’s.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Harry replied, sounding more bitter than he meant. “Sorry.” He wasn’t really sorry for what he said, as the ignorance aggravated him, he was more sorry over the tone he’d used. “I don’t really have a plan on what we’re going to do.”

“What a great, prepared professor you are.” Malfoy said before stalking off towards Hogwarts, his long skinny legs taking large steps. Harry watched him go, and swore he definitely wasn’t checking out Malfoy from behind. It wasn’t until Malfoy turned to look back that he realised he hadn’t moved and broke into a little run to catch Malfoy up while doing his best not to scoop up some snow and lob it at the back of Malfoy’s head, as tempting as it was.

“McGonagall has set up this whole thing, it's a bit much if you ask me.” Harry continued with a shrug as he walked next to Malfoy, their shoulders brushing each other and making Harry’s breath catch in his throat when they did.

“What does Minerva think we’re doing, then?” 

Harry looked away from Malfoy and bit his lip nervously. He could feel Malfoy’s pointed glare burn the side of his face which only made his anxiety worse. “Good question.” Out of all the possible responses, why had Harry chosen that one? He winced a little at his words and glanced sheepishly at Malfoy. “I may have forgotten to mention that it was actually you coming.”

“Potter!” Malfoy exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. “I only came because I thought Minerva wanted this and I wanted to return the favour of her letting me take my NEWTs.” Harry never knew he finished his studies. Hermione had never mentioned it. He also noted that Malfoy called McGonagall  _ Minerva _ , she’d asked Harry to call her that yet he never managed to get his head around it. He wondered how close Malfoy and McGonagall were.

“You can still return the favour, but now it will be a pleasant surprise.”

Malfoy rolled his eyes and quickened his pace so he was walking in front. This time, Harry didn’t bother to catch up and let Malfoy have his mini sulk. In Harry’s mind, if he had told McGonagall it was Malfoy coming and then Malfoy didn’t show, that’d look bad on Malfoy’s part so really, it was in his best interest not to say. Yet, Malfoy always did like a good sulk, whether it was about Harry beating him in Quidditch, Hermione beating him in class or anything really.

When they reached the Hogwarts gates, Malfoy waited for Harry to catch up, wordlessly asking where to next. Harry just stepped in front of him and led him to his office, yanking his useless jacket off as soon as he entered the room and slinging it over his chair.

He looked back to see Malfoy standing at the door, face blank and looking out of it. Harry had the same reaction when he first came into the room, all the memories of Remus, Umbridge and even Snape flooding his mind all at once. 

Malfoy closed his eyes to compose himself before following Harry in and surveying the room. “It’s quite a mess in here.”

“Yes.” Harry said bluntly, not caring about the mess that in reality was just scrap parchment and all the books he’d brought in his attempt to reassure himself. It was a lot of parchment and a lot of books, though.

“How long have we got until I’m required to do whatever I’m here for?” Malfoy asked as he slowly slipped off his coat with much grace and neatly placed it on the back of the other chair. Harry could easily see the differences between the two of them, even down to something so trivial as how they took off their jackets.

Malfoy looked good in his tight white shirt, and Harry almost forgot he’d even spoken until Malfoy raised his eyebrow pointedly, provoking Harry to respond. “I’m not really sure. The students are having their breakfast and then the great hall will be set up for us. I think Binns has some topics he wants us to go over and I’m guessing there will be many questions.”

“Wonderful.” Malfoy replied sarcastically and ran a hand through his hair. Harry’s breath caught in his throat again as he watched Malfoy and forced himself to look away, telling himself that he should  _ not _ be thinking like this.

“Robbins will probably have a lot of questions but he’s lovely.” Harry just hoped Robbins wouldn’t start asking about him and Malfoy personally, rather than sticking to the topic of the war. “After that, I’ll be doing a demonstration type thing and I was hoping you’d…” Harry trailed off and looked down at the floor, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

“I’d what?”

“Duel with me?” Harry glanced up nervously and never hated Malfoy’s blank expression more than he did at that moment. He had no idea what he was feeling. Did he think Harry was a complete idiot for asking? Did he want to walk out on it all? Did he find the entire thing hilarious? There was no way for Harry to tell.

“Dueling club round two?” Malfoy eventually said, a smirk playing on his lips. 

Harry felt relieved and even found himself smirking back. “You bet. Except we’ll be the ones teaching.”

“So Snape and Lockhart?” Malfoy was smirking more and together, they both said “You’re Lockhart.”

Harry couldn’t stop himself and laughed loudly, the fact that they both saw themselves more Snape than Lockhart hilarious to him. Malfoy stayed quiet but looked like he was fighting against joining Harry in laughing, and the more Harry did laugh, the more Malfoy’s mouth twisted up until he too was laughing.

Harry liked his laugh. It was honest, no pretenses masking it. His big grin caused little wrinkles by his eyes that made him more than the Malfoy that would sneer and insult. It made him  _ attractive _ .

Harry could never have been more thankful for the gentle tap on the door, forcing them both to compose themselves and Harry clearing his throat before inviting the knocker in.

McGonagall opened the door and peered in, her eyes visibly widening when they saw Malfoy. “Draco. What a surprise.” She gave Harry a questioning look then tried to cover it up with a smile. “How is your little business going?”

“Very well, thank you.” Malfoy replied and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

“Your donation to the school was very thoughtful.” 

Malfoy nodded and ran a hand through his hair again, looking anywhere but Harry and McGonagall. The room was silent and Harry could feel the tension around them. Harry cleared his throat and both of them looked at him. It did the trick and snapped McGonagall into action, telling them the great hall was ready before making a quick exit.

“Is there anything else I need to know?” Malfoy asked as he held the door handle, ready to leave.

“Um.” Harry’s thoughtful sound didn’t please Malfoy with his eye rolls. “Actually! If Smith asks a question, please  _ please  _ piss him off.”

Malfoy raised his eyebrow. “Smith?” He asked curiously but also with a judging look. Harry had to admit, wanting to piss off his students was not a good trait for a teacher, it was quite Snape-like, but Harry had good reason.

“Zacharias Smith’s nephew. Trust me, you’ll know who he is.” Harry’s main goal for today was to annoy Smith as much as possible, just for pure entertainment. It was his face when someone proved him wrong, it was rather like what Malfoy used to be like. He doubted Malfoy could get pissed off like that now, but maybe, if he beats him in the duel later, he’ll get to see that face again.

“Come on then, Potter.” Malfoy swung the door fully open dramatically and strutted out of the room with so much finesse. Harry’s jaw dropped ever so slightly as he watched Malfoy go, and the way his hips moved from side to side. It was mesmerising. “Potter!” Harry snapped out of his thoughts and did a mini run to catch up with Malfoy, making sure to walk by his side at all times to prevent looking at his arse again. He was at work at it was not professional. Plus it was Malfoy.

For most of the way of course, Malfoy knew the way, but not to the staff entrance to the Great Hall, which was through many secret passageways.

“Wish I'd known these when I was here.” Malfoy muttered and Harry honestly didn't want to know why. He had to agree with him though, he would have loved to know the teacher’s secret passageways, as they never were on the Marauder's map. Which reminded him, he could really use that map to keep an eye on the misbehaving students.

“Ah. Mr Malley.” Binns said when Malfoy and Harry walked into the staff area, the sound of chatter coming from the Great Hall.

Malfoy turned to Harry and sniggered, “He hasn't changed then.” He had leaned down to Harry’s ear and Harry could feel his warm breath on his cheek, sending chills through his spine.

Binns had his notes hovering in front of him, flicking through them and muttering to himself before finding the right page. “Here we are. The Ministry wanted to add the First war and Second war into the syllabus, deeming it an important topic to teach the students in order to prevent something like that occurring again. Of course, there are many different points of view in the war and although I am fully capable of teaching them from the notes I have-”

“Shall I just take that?” Malfoy asked, cutting Binns’ dull rant to a halt as he took the parchment Binns was looking at from him without even waiting for a reply.

“As I was saying-”

“Cuthbert, we’re about to start, could you join me in the Great Hall?” McGonagall called over, saving them from what Binns was saying and therefore, leaving Harry and Malfoy alone in the staff area.

Malfoy was silently reading over the notes Binns had given him, which had clearly been written by an enchanted quill, missing out little details.

“He will wants us to go over the first war as well.” Malfoy announced then shoved the parchment into his pocket. “I'm not doing it on my own, as you can believe, my knowledge is quite biased.” Harry could see why.

“I know a bit, from Dumbledore and this.” He waved his hand in the direction of his scar, that being enough to explain his general knowledge.

Malfoy nodded and stepped towards the door, peeking to see the Great Hall. “That's a lot of potential questions.” He commented more to himself as he saw the number of people there.

Harry stood behind him, looking over his shoulder on tiptoes. It did look quite daunting, standing above the entire school and explaining your, frankly shitty, childhood. “Will you be okay?”

“As long as no one mentions- Yes I will be fine.” It was like Malfoy was taking back what he was initially going to say, and now Harry was curious as to what it was. “Let's get it over with, then.” With a deep breath, Malfoy took one step into the hall before turning back to look at Harry. He was worried he’d backed out already, but he was wrong. “I'm just looking forward to beating you in the duel.”

“In your dreams, Malfoy.” Harry smirked back, and Malfoy winked in return before walking confidently to the front of the raised area, glancing back at Harry behind him.

“I'm sure most of you know who I am, but if you don't, I’m Draco Malfoy. I won't bore you with facts you already know, so go ahead and ask me what you don't know, no matter what the question is, I will answer it.” Malfoy seemed right in his element, watching the students as they all shot their hands up eagerly. He glanced back at Harry again and motioned to the crowd. 

Harry looked back at him confused then realised what he was silently asking. He didn't know anyone's names and needed someone to pick the questions, which now was Harry’s job.

“Okay. Wright?” She was a Ravenclaw girl in her fourth year so Harry hoped she’d start the questions on a better note than someone like Smith would.

“What made you want to become a Death Eater?” So much for starting on a good note.

“It wasn’t that I wanted to be a Death Eater, it was more following in my father’s footsteps and keeping my mother safe from Voldemort.” Malfoy explained calmly, and Harry almost wanted to intervene, but Malfoy continued. “I was stupid for believing that asking for help made me weak and in the end, it all became too much.”

Harry stepped closer to Malfoy and patted him on the back supportively. “You okay?”

“Perfectly fine.” Malfoy replied back and even gave Harry a smile to prove it. Harry had underestimated how strong Malfoy was mentally.

“Simmons?”

“Do you still have the dark mark?” The second year hufflepuff wondered, glancing around at his friends who’d clearly all wanted to know the answer too.

“Yes. It’s faded but it’ll always be there.” He glanced down at his left forearm then back up at the Great Hall.

And the questions went on. The older years that were taking notes stuck to asking about Malfoy’s account of the war that would be useful in their exams while the younger years stuck to questions about Malfoy. Harry had now learnt he’d had the bookstore since he was nineteen, he still played Quidditch and he was single. Luckily, Smith or his little gang didn't ask any questions and instead just sat sulking at the back of the room. The only question out of them all that rendered Malfoy speechless was Robbin’s, of all people.

“Are you and Professor Potter friends now?” He had asked, looking between the two of them. Harry didn't even know the answer, and neither did Malfoy as he remained quiet and just stared at Harry, both of them silently questioning what they were.

It was Harry who finally replied with “Yes, I suppose we are.” And thankfully, Malfoy nodded in agreement. Robbins grinned at them both and Harry shared his joy. It would have been embarrassing if Malfoy had said  _ no,  _ but more than that, Harry would have been disappointed.

It was a little after that when McGonagall took over and invited people to either go study, or stay for Harry’s lesson. Harry didn’t realise it was a lesson, more of a demonstration really, but he supposed they would be learning from said demonstration.

Harry noted that the students who learnt better by taking notes were more likely to leave, along with Smith’s group, so left behind was quite a large number of students.

McGonagall had asked Harry and Malfoy to move the tables to the side of the room, and that was when Harry noticed Malfoy’s new wand. He’d given the Hawthorn wand back straight after the trials so it surprised him that he had a new wand, but it looked like it was good with Malfoy’s magic and that was the most important thing after all.

“All yours.” With that, McGonagall exited the Great Hall, leaving the two men surrounded by a large number of students watching them eagerly.

“Right. You wanted demonstration, you're going to get one.” Harry said, confidently getting back into his teaching shoes. “We need something to work on, so what do you want to see?”

The students called out a large selection of spells that range from things like the tickling charm right up to the imperius curse.

“This could get a bit messy.” Harry noted, speaking loud enough for only Malfoy to hear. “What are you okay with?”

“Anything.” Malfoy shrugged back and twirled his wand with ease, tapping his foot on the stone floor. It was slightly offputting the way he couldn’t patiently wait.

“Okay. We’ll start with a duel, then. Nothing serious, just a simple duel.” He wasn’t getting any leads from Malfoy so went with this, instructing the students to stay on one side of the hall and putting up a protective barrier in case any of the spells went their way. “Ready Malfoy?”

Malfoy shrugged in return and was still twiddling his wand aimlessly. Harry was surprised he wasn’t going to use the normal duel etice but this was him and Malfoy after all, and when did they ever do things correctly, either of them.

Harry raised his wand slowly. This could be the quickest duel ever if Malfoy didn’t start to focus. “Expelliarmus!” Harry cast and was thankful that Malfoy put up a shield to it. He was surprised at how fast Malfoy responded, impressed even.

Malfoy seemed pleased with himself and smirked at Harry, sending a nonverbal spell Harry’s way, bouncing off of his shield and hitting the protective barrier. This was tame, they both knew that so silently decided to up the antics.

Harry moved to the left with a sudden movement and from a different angle, managed to hit Malfoy with  _ Rictusempra _ . Harry let the glee of Malfoy giggling to himself get to his head too much and was also taken by surprise when Malfoy moved quickly and hit Harry with  _ Tarantallegra _ .

Harry remembered the counter charm from Malfoy’s journal and cast it on himself, preventing the embarrassment of having two left feet. The threw a spell Malfoy’s way and he successfully blocked it, and Harry blocked Malfoy’s spell towards him. It went on like this for a while, repelling and if struck, quickly casting the counter curse. Both of them had the sufficient knowledge to keep this up forever but Harry could see in Malfoy’s eyes that he wanted a little more excitement from this.

Malfoy really did have long legs and in two large strides, he’d got himself on top of one of the tables pushed to the side and yelled “Langlock!”

Harry felt his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth and mentally cursed himself. If he wasn’t checking out Malfoy’s legs then he could have easily blocked that. He knew the counter curse, but it was too difficult to perform nonverbal, leaving Harry with very few spells to work with.

He joined the now laughing Malfoy on the table and practically neglected his wand as he chased Malfoy down the table, dodging the spells coming his way the best he could.

Using as much strength but as little power as he could, he cast a  _ Confringo  _ on the window Malfoy passed while making sure to keep the glass from flying near him. However, when Malfoy ducked to avoid the glass, Harry cast another  _ Expelliarmus _ , this time it working and Malfoy’s wand landing firmly in his hand.

Malfoy turned back and raised his eyebrows at Harry. They were both on level playing fields now, one wordless and one wandless. It was now a matter of who could cast the first jinx and knock the other down. Harry had quite a lot of practice in nonverbal spells, and it showed, but he had never expected Malfoy to move so much. It was difficult to pinpoint the spell on the right place without Malfoy working out where that was and dodging it, whilst having to dodge the occasional spell Malfoy sent his way.

It took time, but Harry finally managed to hit him with an  _ Incarcerous  _ and he finally stops moving, his legs tied up and him lying on the floor. He sighed, feeling drained from the duel. He’d forgotten how good of a fighter Malfoy was.

Harry walked over and passed Malfoy his wand back, watching as he let himself free but did nothing to remove Harry’s literal tongue tied situation. He shoved Malfoy as he stood up, trying to get his attention to it.

“I think I might leave you like that. You being quiet is the best peace I’ve had all day.” Malfoy gave Harry his classic teasing smirk before rolling his eyes and removing the  _ Langlock,  _ Harry never being thankful enough to have free movement of his tongue again.

He lowered the protective charms around the students and felt flattered as they call clapped and cheered. “I hope you picked up on some of the techniques we used, because I’m not doing that again in a hurry.”

“Why? Afraid you might lose?” Malfoy asked back, clearly already forgetting the fact that he was the one that lost the duel.

“You’re the best duellers I’ve ever seen!” Robbins smiled from where he was stood right at the front. Harry was pleased to have done some good, fulfilling his promise to give Robbins some practical application.

“Do you mind showing us how to resist an Imperius curse, though?” An older year asked from the back and Harry nodded. He always liked the way his students were so open in what they wanted to learn, it made Harry’s job so much easier.

“I can do that.” Malfoy took over and went on a long explanation of how you need to focus the mind, block out all voices telling you what to do. Giving a long list of different techniques to do this with, like focusing on memories or concepts that are against what you’re being controlled to do. It made Harry wonder how much Malfoy had needed this information. “Potter, if you would.”

“Wait.” Harry looked at Malfoy like he was mad. “You want me to use the imperius curse on you?” Malfoy nodded. “No way. No. Never happening.”

“Stop being so bloody noble and do it!” Malfoy snapped, his sharp tone making Harry jump. He hadn’t used this tone on him since they were teenagers and it still effected Harry the same way it did then. “We have many witnesses that can protect your arse, saying that I asked for it and I doubt you’d make me do anything that’s a cause for concern.” His voice softened a little, maybe he’d realised he’d been too harsh. But this was Malfoy. That was probably the one thing he’d never realise.

“Fine.” Harry gave in and lifted his wand up. He cast the curse and felt the magic seep through him instantly, his own mixed with Malfoy’s. He could feel the blonde's breathing like he was stood right next to him and it sent shivers down his spine. “Touch the floor.” It was the only command he could think of and Malfoy resisted it well, not even flinching. Harry was grateful when he could drop the curse.

“For example, there I imagined things like jumping that contradicted the command, along with telling myself that I should not touch the ground at all costs. It’s all basic things like that, you’ve just got to have a strong mind and strong will power. Takes a lot of practice, though.” Malfoy informed them all, the teaching coming naturally to him. Harry found it intriguing the way Malfoy explained things animatedly, waving his hands around like they’d help explain but just made him look over excited.

They had a few more questions and Harry let Malfoy answer wherever he could, just wanted to watch the way Malfoy explained with such intellect. It was endearing.

“Going to walk me to the apparition point?” Malfoy asked when they had finished, but it wasn’t really a question, more of a request, an order even. Harry didn’t mind, though, he was hoping Malfoy would ask anyway.

They walked together back up to Hogsmeade, shoulders brushing as they did. Harry’s hands were in his pocket, the cold getting to him again. He didn’t want to attempt and fail at a warming charm around Malfoy. Despite how cold he felt, the urge to pick up some snow and hurl it at Malfoy’s face was too large, and it was so worth it to see the shocked expression on his face.

“Payback.” Harry explained bluntly and fully expected Malfoy to take up the challenge, scooping up some snow and aiming for Harry. It narrowly missed.

Harry felt like they were dueling again, but it was a lot colder and far more intense than earlier, their laughter filling the air as they messed around like kids. With them, though, something innocent always took a turn for the worst.

Malfoy gave up with the snow, his hands red and most likely numb, so instead chose to just shove Harry. And Harry shoved back. They both fell, Malfoy on his back and there was an awful crunch as they hit the ground.

Malfoy stared up at Harry blankly before turning his head to look at his arm that had hit a rock and definitely looked the wrong angle.

“Shit.” Harry quickly moved off of him and with the unbroken arm, lifted him to his feet. “Want me to mend it?”

“You’re alright, Lockhart, I’ll keep my bones.” Malfoy joked, trying to smile and hide the pain he was in but Harry could see it in his eyes every time his arm moved in any way. Probably too proud to admit.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.” Malfoy said and rolled his eyes. “Stop being so bloody concerned.” But Harry couldn’t help it. He felt guilty for causing him to be in pain and just hoped it wouldn’t halt their growing friendship. “See you around, Potter.” 

Harry watched as Malfoy walked off without a backwards glance and then there was the loud crack of apparition, and Malfoy was gone. Harry thought it was too dangerous for him to apparate with an injury, but he’d done it anyway, without a care, no doubt. 

He’d be okay, he told himself, arms were easy to fix, but it didn’t stop the guilt from coming.

* * *

Draco didn’t blame Potter, of course he didn’t blame him. It was just a misplaced rock that his arm just happened to hit with a great force.

Draco apparated to St Mungo's and got a scolding from the Healers because of it but he was fine, so no harm done. It was better to live life with a little risk than do something like side-apparate with Potter. He would not stoop to such levels,  _ ever _ . If the events before weren’t bad enough, having Potter’s bloody sympathy and that stupid duel that was too wordless for his liking. No, he’d have some dignity and apparate alone and get his arm fixed  _ alone _ .

It didn’t take long. The Mediwizards cast some spells, gave Draco some potions then sent him on his way.

He was thankful to leave, the place always having a creepy vibe and too many bad memories for him to be there too long. He was glad his broken arm didn’t lead him to the Spell Damage ward or he would have lost his mind, for sure.

“You’re late.” Pansy said and deliberately blew the smoke from her cigarette into his face to show her annoyance.

“Don’t nag. I was at St. Mungo’s.” Draco explained and leaned against the wall next to her, waiting for her to finish her cigarette before letting her inside his apartment. He would not have it stinking off smoke.

“Why were you there? Did you visit Spell Damage?” Pansy had worry in her voice and shoved her cigarette into Draco’s hand, and for once, he obeyed. He took a drag from the half smoked cigarette and felt himself relax, not even realising his shoulders were so tense.

“No, it’s not what you think. Blame Potter, if you like.” In truth, he could have gone back to Madam Pomfrey and avoided St Mungo’s all together but that would involve walking back with Potter.

“You should stay away from him. He always has trouble coming his way, and you don’t need that.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” He took another drag of the cigarette before giving it back to her and heading inside. Pansy was a smart girl and knew well enough that following him would end badly, plus she probably wanted to finish her cigarette.

Soon as Draco got inside his apartment, he opened all the windows to get rid of the smell he’d now caused to follow him around and cast some charms to help circulate the air. Once that was done, the only thing he needed now was a drink.

His cupboards were all out of firewhiskey from the last time he’d binge drank. He should really stop doing that, but it took the edge off of everything and above all else, it was peaceful. Fishing through his stores of alcohol, he found some Muggle whiskey and an old bottle of vodka that some distant friend got him for his birthday.

Shrugging, he poured it all into a glass and with no thought on the consequences, shrank the drink down to a shot size. He heard Pansy walk in and chugged the glass back before she even had the chance to stop him.

“I leave you for one minute.” Pansy rolled her eyes and came over, taking a sniff of the glass then grimacing. “Fuck, are you out of your mind?”

Draco rolled his eyes and moved past her to sit on the sofa, already feeling a tad dizzy. “I hate that fucking hospital.” He muttered and waved his wand, accidentally causing a vase on the other side of the room to smash.

“Right.” Pansy marched over and snatched the wand out of Draco’s hand. “You’re not getting this back until I say so.” She tucked it into her pocket and went to examine the damage Draco had done. “Your mother got you that when you moved here.”

“Then it stays broken.” Draco snapped as Pansy went to fix it and felt satisfied when she moved away and sat down next to him on the sofa. 

They sat in silence. Draco stared at the wall, zoning out completely and Pansy’s only proper movement was to close the windows with her wand. Draco liked Pansy’s company, even when it was silent like this. The fact that she was there soothed him. Or maybe it was the alcohol because the next thing he knew, he was crying.

“Why am I so fucked up?” He sobbed, letting Pansy pull him into her arms and rubbing his back as he let his tears out.

“You’re not fucked up.” Pansy said softly, now rocking Draco back and forth as he tried to control his breathing while crying. “You’re just having a rough time right now, but you’ll get over it.”

“It’s been three years.” Draco argued back which provoked Pansy to squeeze him harder.

“Some take longer to heal than others.”

_ Heal _ … Oh yes. His arm was still healing, the potions still in his system. “Oops.”

“What?” Pansy pulled away to look in dead in the eye, always knowing when something was serious.

“Potions make my head funny.” He pointed at his head in case Pansy had forgotten what a head was and tried to focus on her, but his eyesight wasn’t clear. Maybe it was the tears. He hoped it was the tears.

“You never cease to surprise me at how stupid you can be.” Draco giggled at that, finding it somehow funny. He felt himself being dragged up from the sofa and lead somewhere. The next thing he knew was that everything was soft and a voice was telling him to “sleep it off”. His mind was all over the place. He closed his eyes for what felt like a second but when he opened them again, the room was dark.

“Draco.” He heard someone say and looked around franticly. No one was there. “Over here.” They said again, but Draco didn’t know where  _ here  _ was. He sat up slowly, ignoring the dizziness he felt and stood up. “Draco, help me.” Draco nodded, knowing deep inside he had to help them and slowly stepped to where he thought the voice was. He was almost there when there was a piercing scream, almost blowing his eardrums.

“No!” He screamed out to the voice. It was too late. It was all his fault. He’d caused this. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He yelled out, hoping they’d hear and forgive him. No. He was past forgiveness. It was too far. Too extreme. Too permanent. Sorry wasn’t good enough.

Draco blinked hard and the room was lighter. Pansy was standing right in front of him looking the most worried he’d seen her in years. Then his cheek was burning and stung to the touch.

“Did you slap me?” He asked sheepishly, wincing as he touched his cheek again. That girl had a ferocious hand to her.

“You were screaming.” She explained briefly. Draco didn’t remember screaming and frowned at her. “Were you having another one of your hallucinations again?”

“Maybe.” He mumbled sadly, rubbing his head. He hadn’t had one in months, he thought he was over them and had just the dreams to deal with now. He thought he was getting  _ better _ .

“Have you thought of going-”

“I’m not going there! No!” Draco snapped, knowing exactly what she was going to suggest. The thought of going  _ there  _ too scary and too upsetting for his brain to get around.

“Look, I think you should stop drinking, at least for a while anyway. This was brought on by that strong drink and the potions you had, doesn’t that show you that you should stop?” Pansy reasoned, hand on his shoulder.

“No, that just says I shouldn’t drink and have-” Draco was stopped by his stomach rolling and his hand went straight to cover his mouth on instinct.

“Bathroom, now!” Draco didn’t need Pansy to tell him that and ran to the bathroom, getting there just in time to throw up in the toilet. Pansy was rubbing his back the entire time and murmuring that it was going to be okay, but she’d been saying that for three years and he was at that point where he just didn’t believe it anymore.

* * *

It had been a week since Harry had seen Malfoy, and he hadn’t heard a single thing from him. Harry was trying not to worry but the thought of Malfoy apparating with an injury made his imagination work overdrive as to what might have happened.

He’d sent Malfoy a letter asking if he was okay but didn’t get a reply. He thought that maybe he’d gone back to ignoring him, but then, he asked Luna if she knew if he was okay and her answer was what really worried him. Luna had told him that Malfoy’s shop hadn’t been open all week and that she hadn’t heard anything either.

That week was one of Harry’s worst in his career. He kept getting distracted by small things that reminded him of Malfoy and that would make him lose his focus on what he was currently doing. He was glad he wasn’t an Auror anymore or his behaviour would have been borderline suicidal.

Harry tried to block Malfoy out as he attempted marking the essays from his seventh years but the handwriting was so similar to Malfoy’s that it was near impossible for him to not think of the blond idiot.

There was a knock at the door, and Harry was thankful for the distraction. “Come in.” He called and slammed his quill down.

McGonagall opened the door, not looking at all happy. “You’ve got a visitor.” She glanced back at whoever was behind her then looked back at Harry. “An angry one.”

The door was pushed open more and McGonagall was moved out of the way, replaced with Pansy Parkinson, who indeed looked furious. She closed the door in McGonagall’s face rudely, glaring at Harry.

“What?” Harry snapped, hand resting on his wand in defence. A girl looking this angry, especially when it was Pansy Parkinson, was capable of anything.

“Aren’t you going to offer me something to drink? Where are your manners?” She sat in the chair opposite dramatically and crossed her arms.

“Would you like a drink, then?” He asked to satisfy her, still wanting to know why she was here, or what he had done wrong.

“No. What I want is for you to leave Draco the fuck alone.”

Harry’s head was filled with many questions. Did she know if Malfoy was okay? Did she know why Malfoy was ignoring him? Why did she want him to leave Malfoy alone? So much for a distraction from Malfoy.

“Who are you, his mother?” Was the reply Harry chose, deciding against all the questions brewing in his mind.

“As good as.” Pansy leaned forward, her eyes looking murderous. “It was fine at first, your little arrangement, but now it’s got to stop. You need to stay away.”

“Why should I?” Harry said defiantly, finding mild satisfaction at Pansy growing angrier. “If Malfoy wants me to stay away, then he can say it himself.” He wasn’t about to be told from Malfoy’s friend that he needed to back off. If it was Malfoy’s words, he should stop being a coward and not send in his friends to do his dirty work.

“Look.” Pansy sighed, the anger fading from her. “Draco is in a bad place right now. What he needs is full recovery and you need to back off to give him that.”

Harry sat wondering what exactly it was that had put Malfoy into a bad place and more importantly, why he needed to back off to allow Malfoy to recover.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With that, Pansy stood up and stormed out of Harry’s office, slamming the door so hard it nearly came off of it’s hinges as she went.

Harry was left speechless at the visit, not understanding where it had even come from. He wasn’t even close to Malfoy so staying away wouldn’t be hard at all, but Harry’s main principle stood; if Malfoy wanted him to go away, he’d have to say himself. Unless he was unable to say himself, but then Harry sending a letter occasionally wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Harry was confused, like always when it came to Malfoy. He slammed his head onto the desk with an annoyed sigh, wishing for once that Malfoy could be simple.

The door opened again and for a brief moment, Harry thought Pansy had come back to have another go at him. She hadn’t and instead, McGonagall was entering the room, sitting where Pansy had sat moments ago.

“What have you got yourself involved in this time?” McGonagall asked, not accusing but caring.

“She wants me to stay away from Malfoy because he’s in a  _ bad place _ and needs to  _ fully recover _ .” Harry’s anger, and also childness, showed as he mocked what Pansy had said. If she had given a full explanation then perhaps he wouldn’t be behaving like this.

“He seemed fine last Friday, and you both got along well.” McGonagall said, having the appearance of deep thought. “Miss Parkinson has always been a bit defensive.”

“A bit?” More like a lot.

“However, she almost always has good intentions behind it. My opinion on the matter is to listen to her words, but, if Draco reaches out to you, depending on the situation, you can ignore her words.” 

McGonagall’s advice was good, really good. It made him miss having Hermione there to instantly give him her opinion on whatever stupid situation Harry’d got himself caught up in.

“What do you mean, depending on the situation?”

“If the consequences of going against Miss Parkinson outweigh the positives of keeping in contact with Draco.” McGonagall explained and patted Harry’s hand sympathetically then stood to leave.

“Thank you.” Harry said genuinely, her advice truly useful. If she hadn’t come in, he probably would have spent hours deciding what to do and make the wrong decision anyway. This way, he may actually get some work done.

“You’re welcome. My staff’s well being is high on my priorities list, and both you and Draco are very dear to me. I wish the best for you both.” McGonagall smiled kindly and left the room, closing the door gently. Harry was thankful to have McGonagall there, almost like the mother figure he’d never had. Along with Molly, of course.

He finally managed to get his work done. He still had Malfoy on his mind, but now he had a course of action.

A couple of hours later and a lot of marking done, there was a faint tapping at the window. Frowning, Harry got up to investigate what it was, opening the window to have an owl fly into the room, flapping around franticly. 

“Calm down.” He told the familiar owl, recognising it as Malfoy’s. When it finally stopped flying around the room, it dropped a letter onto Harry’s desk. Harry pulled out the owl treats from the desk drawer, having them because of the amount of times he’d been to the owlery to write to Malfoy. The owl was happy with it’s treat and flew out of the window soon after that, the window being closed behind it, the cold air already filling the room too much for Harry’s liking.

He managed a decent warming charm for once and sat down again, picking up the letter with a shaking hand. He was scared of what it might say, that it might confirm Pansy’s words and that would be the end of their not even friendship. They may have said they were friends in front of the entirety of Hogwarts, but that didn't make it true. It didn't feel true, not yet anyway.

Slowly, he opened the envelope and slid the letter out, taking a moment to admire the posh parchment before unfolding it. He was stalling, he knew he was, but he didn’t know why. That was one question Harry had failed to answer, why did he even care if he was friends or not with Malfoy?

With a deep breath, he read the letter.

_ Dear Lockhart, _

_ I apologise on behalf of Pansy. She really doesn’t know when to stop controlling my life. I am completely fine and not in any way in a ‘bad place’. I do not know how she comes up with these things. _

_ If my friend has not scared you off, then congratulations on being too brave for your own good. But also, I’d like to invite you for a drink, or something along those lines. You decide the time and the place, and I’ll be there. _

_ I apologise again for Pansy, truly. _

_ ~Draco Malfoy _

Harry rolled his eyes at the change from Scarhead to Lockhart and couldn’t stop himself from grinning. A drink with Malfoy definitely outweighed the consequences of going against Pansy, so, with confidence and a bit of joy, Harry replied.

* * *

 


	3. Revelations

* * *

Potter had suggested the Three Broomsticks initially, the forgetful idiot. Draco was never setting foot in there again after what happened with Madam Rosmerta. Instead, Potter decided on a Muggle bar he use to go in before he started working at Hogwarts. It would do, Draco thought.

He was fed up with Pansy. He knew she had good intentions, but it was unnecessary. The hallucination was a blip, that was all, caused by the mix of strong alcohol and potions, not because he’d fallen down that hole again. He didn't blame Pansy for being worried because after all, she was the one dealing with him the first time. However, this was not the same.

Draco lied to Pansy, saying he needed to check on his store to let him leave her flat. It was like being a child again with her keeping constant supervision on him and forcing him to stay on her sofa so if he slipped again, she’d be there to calm him down. Everything had been blown way out of proportion.

Draco did go to his store, that bit wasn't a lie. He felt like he was at the stage where he could be friends with Potter, and decided to seal this with a gift. He knew it was around somewhere and it didn’t take long for him to find it, smirking to himself.

The little detour made him late, fashionably late Draco would call it. When he entered the bar he spotted Potter sat at a table in the corner, all on his own with two drinks.

“For me?” Draco raised his eyebrow at the untouched drink and sat down opposite Potter, his gift tucked under his arm.

“No, I just wanted two drinks for myself. Get your own.” Potter replied and took a sip of the other drink to prove his point.

Draco rolled his eyes and placed the gift onto the table, pushing it towards Potter before getting up to buy his own drink. He decided to buy a whole bottle of wine and brought two glasses back, just in case Potter wanted to be a little more civilized than his two pints of beers.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Potter asked, pointing at the book in front of him titled “ _ The Best Hairstyles for the well-to-do Wizard _ ”.

“I said I’d find a book for that messy hair of yours.” He glanced up at Potter’s hair, still all over the place as usual. “If you’re going to be friends with me, you’ll have to make an effort.” Draco watched as Potter’s green eyes grew wider as he realised what Draco was saying.

“You mean-”

“Yes, Potter. You and I are friends. Don’t get too excited.” Draco tried acting like it didn’t matter, like it was nothing but as he filled his wine glass, he couldn’t help but smile, especially with Potter beaming happily like that. “Wine?” Potter shook his head. Typical. Well, more for him. Pansy would probably pop a blood vessel in her anger if she could see what was happening.

“How are you?” In any other situation, this question would have been polite small talk but Draco knew Potter was asking about Pansy’s threats, most likely trying to get to the bottom of them.

“I’m good.” Draco lied and sipped his wine, the warmth relaxing him as it touched his lips. “Really good actually, gave myself a week holiday.” Technically, it wasn’t a lie. He had taken a week holiday from working at the bookstore, but that was Pansy’s doing, not his.

“Yeah? I’m jealous.” Potter lifted his pint to his lips and Draco couldn’t help but watched as he swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing. “Less Slytherins are getting picked on after your visit, though.”

“Good.” Draco nodded and finished his glass of wine, ignoring Potter’s raised eyebrow at the speed he drank. “Don’t start assuming things.” He threatened yet still poured himself another glass.

“I’m not assuming anything.”

“Yes you are. You’re trying to find out what my bad place is and then, you’ll try to fix me.” Potter’s face said it all. Draco was spot on with his statement. “I assure you, there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Then why would Pansy say all that?” Potter frowned. Merlin, it was difficult to get him to forget things with that hero complex always working overdrive.

“Will you just leave it?!” Draco yelled and the room’s noise volume went down because of it, people curious to what was going on. Potter glanced around the room shyly and seemed to sink into his seat a bit more, clearly not liking the attention Draco’s shout had brought.

“Calm down, I’m leaving it.” Potter muttered, looking at the wall and not at Draco like everyone else in the room was. 

_ Even Muggles were nosey bastards, _ Draco thought to himself and finished his second glass of wine.

“I’ll have some of that.” Potter motioned to the other wine glass and with a raised eyebrow, Draco filled both glasses this time. He watched again as Potter drank the wine, grimacing when he’d finished it all at once. “Why do you like that?”

“Grown up with it. Mother sometimes let me have it.” Draco shrugged. He’d suppressed the memories of his mother letting him try her wine and then when he liked it, letting him have the occasional glass with his meal. Wizard’s wine was better, of course, but this Muggle bottle wasn’t too bad. “Or maybe it’s the stereotype.”

“Stereotype?” Potter looked confused again. Draco could put bets on Potter’s face having the look of confusion at least half of the time, maybe more.

“Yes, Potter.” Draco glanced back at the rest of the room that had now got back to their own business. “You know, the one about a gay man’s tastes.”

Potter eyebrow’s furrowed. “You’re gay?” He said in almost a whisper, looking Draco up and down.

“Issue with that?” Draco said defensively, not particularly liking the way he was being looked at by the Gryffindor. If he knew he’d act like this, he would have never said anything.

“No, of course not, I just didn’t expect it.”

Now Draco was the one frowning. “Really? I thought it was obvious.”

The evening went on, the two of them making pointless small talk. It was nice, however, Draco couldn’t get it out of his head that Potter was looking at him differently since revealing his sexuality. He didn’t like it. Potter’s eyes felt more intimate, and not in a good way.

* * *

Harry was too drunk to go back to Hogwarts, students were still around and he had an image of superiority to keep up. He couldn’t be stumbling around the castle drunk.

It was good that he was the one that selected the location of his drink with Malfoy, as it was around the corner from Ron and Hermione’s house and he hadn’t seen them in ages.

“Harry!” Ron exclaimed when he opened the door, smiling widely at his best friend. Harry hugged him sloppily, being a little too drunk to hug properly then walked in and sat on their couch. “Hermione, come down! Harry’s here!” Ron called up the stairs. “I would offer you a drink but looks like you’ve already had too much.” He was turning into Hermione, Harry was sure of it.

Hermione practically ran down the stairs over to Harry, kissing both his cheeks then turning her nose up. “You smell of alcohol.” Harry would be surprised if he didn’t, the amount he’d drank.

“Why did no one tell me Malfoy’s gay?” Harry got straight to the point he wanted to talk about. He honestly had no idea. He thought Malfoy was straight, but then he always was too oblivious.

“Mate, I thought it was obvious. Ever since fifth year, maybe even fourth?” Ron said, Hermione nodding with agreement. Harry did have other things on his mind at the time, maybe that’s why he didn’t notice.

“Wasn’t he with Pansy?” Harry frowned. All the knowledge he’d known about Malfoy now turning into something else. He wasn’t sure what was true anymore.

Hermione shook her head and sat down next to Harry, hand resting on his shoulder. “Harry.” She started, pausing before continuing. “Were you out drinking with Malfoy?”

Harry was blushing. Why was he blushing? “Maybe.”

“Please tell me you’re not obsessed again?” Ron asked and before Harry could even answer, Ron threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed, “I give up!” With that, he stomped up the stairs.

“Hermione?” He turned to his other best friend that had stayed with him, remembering how much he’d missed her intuitive nature. “Do you think Malfoy is an alcoholic?”

“What makes you say that?”

Harry had been thinking about it since the beginning of the night, the way Malfoy drank the wine so quickly. It was Malfoy’s fault he was so drunk, as he spent most of the evening sharing Malfoy’s drinks so the blond didn’t get too drunk.

“From what I remember when I went back to Hogwarts, he was fine with his drinks. Although, he wasn’t around much, skipped most lessons. Pansy always covered for him.” Hermione explained and had the same look of deep thought McGonagall had just last week.

“Pansy doesn’t like me.” Harry nodded, confirming to himself what he’d said. “She told me to stay away from Malfoy.”

Hermione’s look of deep thought got more intense. “I’ll have a word with Ginny, who shall talk to Luna for me, see if we can get to the bottom of this. I can tell already that you care about Malfoy, so I’ll do this for you. Maybe you should stay away for a bit, or at least not go drinking with him.” Hermione ordered then helped Harry stand up. “But for now, you need to sleep this off.” She lead Harry to the spare room. It was exactly how Harry had left it in the summer. Soon as he got into the room, he flopped onto the bed and curled up in the soft sheets, not bothering to take his clothes off, accidentally hugging the book Malfoy had given him.

He was still trying to get his head around Malfoy being gay. He supposed it kind of made sense and cursed himself for not noticing earlier. Malfoy probably thought he was homophobic, but it was the complete opposite. He hadn’t told anyone, and kept it completely suppressed even from himself to a degree. He found guys attractive. He had had flings with guys. He still found girls attractive, remembering back to Ginny and Cho, but he liked guys as well, like Cedric, or Malfoy. No, he didn’t like Malfoy. He was rude, self-absorbed and pompous. Even if he did like Malfoy, Malfoy would never like him back. No, Harry was a mess, Malfoy had made that perfectly clear at the constant jabs at his appearance, specifically his hair. Plus Harry was disastrous with relationships. It would just end badly.

For once, Hermione was wrong. He did not care about Malfoy. He had no idea where she got that idea from.

That didn’t stop him from going into Malfoy’s shop the next day, just to check he was okay. He wouldn’t let Malfoy know that that was his true intention, though.

As soon as he walked in, he spotted Malfoy sat at his desk, scribbling vigorously onto some parchment. “How may I help-” Malfoy started, but stopped when he looked up and saw Harry. “Potter.” He greeted then went back to his writing, leaving Harry standing there awkwardly.

“I was just wondering if…” Harry trailed off, not confident enough to speak clearly. He took a deep breath before continuing. “How are you?” Because he didn’t care at all. Not one bit.

“Fine.” Malfoy replied bluntly. Harry felt like they were back to square one again.

“Do you maybe want to get some tea, or coffee, or whatever you like…” Harry trailed off again, feeling his cheeks heat up. It sounded too much like a date. He was not asking Malfoy on a  _ date _ .

“There’s a kettle out back.” Malfoy pointed to the door behind him, not understanding the meaning behind Harry’s words. Or maybe that was his way of saying  _ no, I don't want to go out again with you.  _ Maybe Harry had put him off because of last night, Malfoy had revealed something about himself and Harry hadn’t revealed anything back. That’s how Slytherins worked, right?

Harry moved past Malfoy’s desk and into the back room. He quietly went over to the little kettle and magically filled it with water before letting it do it’s job. The only sounds he could here were the kettle and Malfoy’s scribbing, until the latter stopped.

“What do you want?” Malfoy asked him, standing in the doorway of the back room.

“Tea.” Harry replied as he grabbed a mug, putting a teabag in it. He could tell Malfoy had rolled his eyes without having to look.

“No.” Malfoy sounded annoyed. “What are you doing  _ here _ ?”

“This is what friends do, right?” Harry grabbed another mug and put a teabag in that one too. It was Malfoy who suggested being friends, and now they were, he was the one acting against it. Harry couldn’t understand it.

He heard footsteps behind him, enough to know Malfoy was standing extremely close but too scared to turn around to check.

The kettle had finished and Harry went to pour the hot water into the mugs, but was stopped by a hand on his elbow, pulling him around to face Malfoy, practically nose to nose.

Harry stared into Malfoy’s eyes, thinking about last night and how they blazed with anger when Harry asked about what Pansy said and how they were cautious when he confessed his sexuality. Harry had to say something in return, but just as his lips moved to reply, Malfoy’s lips collided with his. Harry couldn’t tell if it was accidental at first, but neither of them moved away, their lips just pressed against each other.

Malfoy made the first move, moving his head slightly to the side as he kissed, hand resting on the counter behind Harry. Harry couldn’t believe what was happening but kissed back, the rest of his body frozen in shock. Malfoy was a good kisser, a very good kisser. Or perhaps Harry loved the kiss so much that it made Malfoy a good kisser. He really didn’t know what was going on.

It didn’t last long. Or it didn’t last long enough. Malfoy pulled away, looking down at Harry, expecting something.

“I think I’m bisexual.” He blurted out and mentally cursed himself at his timing. “Not that it’s because of you. It’s not. I’ve known for some time but you said last night that you are gay and I needed to say something about myself too and…” He tried to explain, feeling like he was getting deeper and deeper into the hole he was digging himself.

“What? You don’t think I’m attractive?” Malfoy questioned, slightly defensive or slightly teasing, Harry couldn’t tell, his mind clouded with  _ Malfoy just kissed me _ on repeat.

“No! Well, yes, you are attractive but I don’t-” Harry stopped himself from speaking, looking into Malfoy’s eyes again and how they were filled with something Harry had never seen before. Lust. “Yes. Yes I do think you’re fit.” Harry told the truth for once and straightened himself, trying to seem more confident under Malfoy’s gaze and not like he was losing his mind after what just happened between them.

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” Harry said again, confirming to himself but also to Malfoy, like the kiss wasn’t enough to confirm that.

“That’s nice to know.” Malfoy said and stepped away. Harry wasn’t even aware he was holding his breath until then and took a deep breath in. Malfoy almost walked back into the main room but paused at the doorway again, his hand holding onto the frame for dear life. Harry thought he was regretting the kiss and felt his heart tug, something he hadn’t felt since the day he broke up with Ginny.

Harry turned back to the tea and this time managed to pour the water into the mugs, followed by milk. “Sugar?” He asked, trying to sound like he wasn’t affected by Malfoy’s sudden turn but  _ fuck _ , he was. Hermione was right, he did care about Malfoy, he cared too fucking much and now it was ripping him apart. His hands were shaking as he mixed the sugar into the tea, and the clanging of metal on the ceramic mug filled the room.

“Potter, it’s not as simple as liking you or not.” Malfoy’s voice was raw but Harry couldn’t understand why. If he liked Harry, then go for it, and if he didn’t, stop playing with his feelings.

“But-”

“Don’t!” Malfoy snapped and one of the mugs smashed, splashing hot tea everywhere. “It’s not simple.” He repeated again and Harry faced him, finding him still stood in the doorway but body tensed. “Pansy was right. I am in a bad place, a very bad place and I’m not going to get out of it any time soon.”

“Is that why she told me to stay away?”  _ Because of your feelings. _ Harry left the last bit unspoken, but they were both aware of the meaning of his words.

“Probably. She knows how I feel even before I do, but that’s not the point. Potter, I sleep around, I drink, I-” He stopped abruptly and looked down. “You can’t be with me.”

“Don’t I get to decide that?” Harry counter argued. It was all moving so quickly but something inside of Harry told him it was right to fight for this. To fight for Malfoy.

“If you’re going to be like that then fine,  _ I _ can’t be with  _ you _ .”

Harry opened his mouth to argue back but no words came out. He couldn’t quite believe what he’d just heard. Malfoy  _ didn’t _ want to be with him, after  _ kissing _ him. He wanted to yell at him, call him all the names under the sun but at the same time, he wanted to prove that Malfoy was lying to Harry and to himself.

“Tell me again. Look me in the eyes and tell me.” Harry finally said, going with the latter option.

Malfoy moved closer, as close as they were standing before they kissed. “I can’t be with you.” He said firmly. Harry searched his eyes for answers and could read them clearly, and they were reading his eyes right back.

Harry grabbed onto Malfoy’s waist and yanked him closer, his lips crashing onto Malfoy’s and kissing him hard. The kiss was a lot more intense than before, and Merlin, there was so much meaning behind it. Harry’s hands moved to Malfoy’s arse, gripping tightly as he felt Malfoy’s own hands on the back of his neck, tugging at his hair. Malfoy’s hands were cold and made him shiver slightly, but the warm sensation of the kiss counteracted that completely. Merlin, Harry felt like he was 100 degrees.

Malfoy pulled away like last time, and Harry almost thought he was going to play with him again but Malfoy’s lips went to Harry’s neck, sucking and biting and kissing. Harry moaned and gripped Malfoy’s arse harder.

“I can’t be with you.” Malfoy repeated, muttering into Harry’s neck, his breath hot.

“Shut up, Malfoy, it’s just a fucking kiss.” Harry retorted. He didn’t understand why it bothered Malfoy so much, it wasn’t like it was wedding vows or anything.

“Just a kiss.” Harry nodded to confirm the whisper that came out of Malfoy, although, he wanted much more than  _ just a kiss,  _ and he could tell that Malfoy felt the same.

“Hello?”

Harry wanted to curse whoever that was, because they made Malfoy pull away and leave the room, attending to his customer. Harry couldn’t blame him, he was only doing his job, however, his mind went imagining all the possibilities as to what could have happened if that customer didn’t show up.

“Potter.” Malfoy called and Harry went straight to him, like a dog even. “You can go now.”

Harry glared at where Malfoy was sat at his desk, back to writing whatever it was that he was writing. “Is that how it’s going to be?”

“Yes.” Malfoy replied almost instantly. Harry was hurt by the lack of hesitation. “Now get out.”

Harry did as he was told, too tired to fight with Malfoy now. He was so hot and cold it was unbelieveable. None of Harry’s previews partners were like that, showing Harry that Malfoy really wasn’t right for him. It was sort of a blessing in disguise in some ways. Perhaps it really was just a kiss.

When Harry was out of the shop, he glanced down at his crotch and sighed. He must really go sort that erection out, Merlin knows how long that's been there.

* * *

Draco woke up in his own bed. That was a good sign, surely. He’d snuck away from Pansy again and gone out, that was confirmed by the killer headache he had. But something was wrong, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

“Morning sexy.”

Ah, that would be it. Draco brought someone home with him. It was all coming back to him now, his dignity fading. “Morning.” Draco replied just to be civil and turned to face the man next to him. For a second, he thought it was Potter with the black hair and green eyes, but his eyes weren't green enough and his jaw wasn't perfect like Potter’s. Not that he’d been observing Potter’s jaw, mind. He thought back to that kiss with Potter and how he’d completely messed it up. There was no going back from that. He’d completely ruined the brief thing they had.

“Round two?” The Potter lookalike asked and moved closer to kiss Draco’s neck. Draco was considering the suggestion, he’d be stupid not to after last night. That was some really good sex, from what he can remember anyway, but Potter lingered in his mind.

“Maybe in a bit.” What he needed at that moment was some hangover potion. After that, he could have the meaningless, emotionless sex. “I'll be back.” He promised before getting up and going into his bathroom, looking for the hangover potion. As he looked in the mirror, he sorted out his bed head, downed the hangover potion he found then went to return to the bedroom.

“Draco?” Someone called. It wasn't the man in his bed, because his voice didn't match this one, plus he didn't think he even knew his name.

Draco looked around his apartment for the owner of the voice, finally finding them standing in the hallway. “Blaise.” He greeted then rolled his eyes at Pansy standing next to him. “What do you want?” He ignored them giving him odd looks because of his nakedness. They should have given some warning if they didn't want to see everything.

“You do know what day it is, right?” Pansy judgingly asked, looking between Blaise and Draco.

“Is it a Wednesday? Or maybe it's a Friday. Actually, I think it’s a Sunday.” Draco answered back, enjoying winding Pansy up. If she wanted to behave like his mother, he could just as easily act like a disobedient child. 

“It's  _ his _ birthday today.” Blaise said and it all clicked. That was the reason he went out, to avoid today, along with the stupid situation he’d had with Potter. No, today was the main reason.

“Hold on.” Draco turned away from them and went to his bedroom. “Out.” He ordered the man, as much as he hated doing it. He really was very attractive.

The man groaned with annoyance and got out of bed, pulling his clothes on as he stumbled out of the room. Draco followed and watched as he muttered an awkward “Hi” at Pansy and Blaise when moving past them to get to the door.

It was silent until the door shut behind him, then as if on cue, Pansy slapped Draco. “Do you have no respect?!” She snapped at him, face full of fury.

Draco looked towards Blaise, begging for help but it seemed he was on Pansy’s side. “Probably not.” He shrugged, convinced that he’d lost any respect for himself months ago, maybe even years ago.

“Are you going to get dressed?”

Draco glanced down at himself then shook his head. “No. I'm not going with you.”

“You really are a selfish bastard, you know that?” Blaise spoke up, his dark eyes glowing with anger. Draco had forgotten how pissed off his two best friends could get.

“I'm aware, yes.” Draco replied blankly, walking back to his bedroom and waving goodbye to the two of them. They knew the way out.

Draco wanted to stay in bed all day, he would have done if he didn't need a distraction. Lying in bed all day made his mind wander and that was the last thing he wanted. He did what he always did when he needed a distraction, he went to his book shop.

He’d spent most of the day organising every shelf and helping customers whenever he could, being unusually sociable. If talking to people would distract his mind, then that’s what he’d do. However, he didn’t expect Luna to enter later on in the day and ruin his perfectly formulated distraction.

“I knew you’d be here, today of all days.” Luna said in her airy voice as she plucked a random book from the shelf and sat in her usual space. “Harry is worried about you.”

“Is he now?” Draco said like he didn’t care, but he did. Of course he cared what Potter thought of him, he always had, in a way.

“He thinks you have a drinking problem.” Draco let out a harsh laugh at that. He was right that Potter was assuming things. “It’s true though, isn’t it?” Luna added, not taking her eyes off of her book. “Your coping mechanism has manifested into a problem because you have no closure. You refuse to allow yourself closure.”

Draco stayed silent, not knowing what to reply back. He knew she was right, that’s why he was finding it so hard to deny it. All he could resort to was changing the subject however he could. “How do you know Potter is worried?”

“Ginny asked me about you for Hermione, who was asking for Harry.” She informed him, still yet to meet his eyes. “Pansy is worried about you too, as is Blaise. I think everyone is worried about you.”

Draco didn’t need their worry, didn’t want it, far too proud for that. He also didn’t like being the hot gossip, everyone talking about him. If they knew what he was going through, they wouldn’t judge his need to have a glass of the strong stuff now and again. Except, it wasn’t now and again now, it was almost everyday.

“I kissed Potter the other day.” Draco blurted out, needing to tell someone. He’d kept it all to himself for way too long and it was getting to the stage where he had too many secrets he was going to explode.

“Did you?” Luna didn’t sound surprised at all. “How did that go?”

“He likes me.” Or, he _ liked _ me. “I told him that I can’t be with him because Pansy was right about me being in a bad place. I think I upset him.”

“You must really like him then.” Draco frowned. In what way did telling Potter he couldn’t be with him mean that he liked him? “You care that you upset him and you only care about someone if they mean something to you.” Luna explained and for once, Draco agreed with her. He did care about Potter, and that was the issue really. He couldn’t care about him, because caring about him meant turning his back on  _ him. _

“It’s allowed, Draco. You’re allowed to move on.” She perfectly summed up why he was in this mess in the first place. It’s why he liked one night stands so much, even if he found them a little degrading, but it allowed him to move on without moving on. It made sense to him. No emotions, no betrayal.

“I promised.”

Luna sighed. “You forget who he is, who he was. He’d understand.” She put her book down and went over to Draco to hug him, rubbing his back sympathetically. “Speak to him, explain everything.”

Draco let himself sink into the hug, considering Luna’s words. He couldn’t avoid him forever, he couldn’t live his life like this forever and Merlin, he really did like Potter.

Draco Malfoy was an arsehole. Harry was one hundred percent sure of that. Knowing that didn’t stop his feelings from growing, though.

* * *

It was the last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas so practically every student was out buying presents for their friends and family. The mad rush to get the perfect gift. It was only the first and second years in the school still, and they kept themselves to themselves in the empty common rooms, able to do what they want without the older years looming over them.

There was a knock at the door. First and second years were very unlikely to come see him outside of lessons, so that left Harry with the high possibility that Pansy had returned, ready to fulfill her threats about staying away from Malfoy. Half of Harry wished he’d listened, he could have saved himself the trouble and confused feelings.

Cautiously, he opened the door, expecting to be killed on the spot by Pansy but instead, was engulfed in a bear hug by his best friend.

“Ron!” He exclaimed happily and hugged him back tightly. Ron was exactly the person he needed right now. “What are you doing here?”

“Do I need an excuse to visit my best friend?” Ron asked back, his eyebrow raised. Harry knew him better, however, and raised his eyebrow back. “Fine. I sensed you needed some friendly advice.”

They both went through to Harry’s private area and sat down on his tiny couch, Harry sighing to himself before getting straight into the conversation. “What do you do when you like someone you really shouldn’t?”

“Give me the reasons why you shouldn’t like them.”

“Okay. One, they’re irritating and a complete git. Two, I’ve been threatened to stay away by their best friend. Three, he’s told me that he can’t be with me and that he’s a mess.” Harry could have gone into more detail, but he felt like he was going to be questioned about it either way so didn’t bother. Plus, listing all the reasons why he shouldn’t like him did not help his feelings one bit.

“This is Malfoy, isn’t it?” Harry had to give Ron points for being observant, though he hadn’t exactly made it hard for Ron to guess. Ron didn’t even sound surprised, and if Harry was honest, he wouldn’t be surprised either if he was Ron. “Ginny told me that Luna said that Malfoy went through a lot of shit during the war and it’s affected him badly. He’s not someone you can fix, Harry.”

“I didn’t even know something was wrong with him until we kissed, not really anyway.” He had inklings but it wasn’t confirmed until Malfoy had that outburst.

“Wait, you kissed him?!” Ron’s eyes were wide and Harry sheepishly nodded back. “Shit. And I thought you were finally done with getting yourself into shitty situations.” He joked and Harry laughed quietly to himself. Out of all the messed up situations, this one had to be at the top. “What are you going to do then? What are your options?”

“I could stay away from him?” Harry suggested as he rested his face in his hands.

“Like you’d ever do that.” Ron chuckled, knowing Harry far too well. “He needs to be open with you before you go any further, you can’t build a relationship on secrets.” Harry nodded along but thought it was very unlikely that Malfoy would ever reveal his secrets so easily, or at all. Malfoy was probably the most secretive person he knew, and he wasn’t going to take that away from him. No, this was just a lost cause. Harry should give up now. If Malfoy wanted this, he’d have to make the move.

“How are you and Hermione?” Harry wondered. They were on the topic of love life and he wanted to know how his favourite couple were doing so it was perfect timing.

“Great. I-I think I might propose to her.”

“Really?!” Harry couldn’t contain his joy. “Go for it, mate! She’ll say yes, I know she will!” If anything could make his day, this would. Ron and Hermione had been dancing around each other for as long as he could remember, and now they could finally be getting married.

“I know, but-”

Ron's sentence was cut short as a silvery cat patronus ran up to them, McGonagall’s voice coming out of it. “Attack at Hogsmeade. Students injured. Come to the Hospital Wing.” And then the patronus left, presumably to round up the rest of the teachers.

“I'm sorry.” Harry apologised to Ron as he stood up. He wanted to hear what Ron was going to say but students were hurt and he was needed to help.

“No worries. I'll come help where I can.” Ron stood too and together, they ran up to the Hospital Wing where there was at least ten students in beds to be treated.

“What happened?” Harry asked as he went over to where the professors stood. He was panting from the run and looked around worriedly.

“There was an explosion at Hogsmeade and some dueling.” McGonagall explained, seeming very distressed and not like her usual composed self. “It was a woman, apparently. That's all we know.”

“I'll go down to Hogsmeade, see if I can help.” Ron offered before running off. Harry didn't have his breath back yet but turned to follow, wanting to help the most he could but his hand was grabbed by McGonagall, leading him to one of the beds.

“Poppy needs someone to take him to St Mungo's Spell Damage ward.” McGonagall explained and motioned to the boy in the bed, Robbins.

Harry nodded. “Yeah, I'll take him.” He said sadly and went over to him. Harry had to admit, he’d grown attached to the boy, his heart was kind and Harry admired him.

Gently, he levitated Robbins and took him over to the floo, stepping into the flames with him and yelling “St Mungo’s floor four.”

The healers must have been warned he was coming because as soon as he entered the hospital, healers were all around him and taking Robbins off of his hands and into one of the top priority rooms. Harry stood watching at the window for a while, the healers casting spells and administering potions. He prayed Robbins would be okay. The healers knew what they were doing. He was in safe hands.

Harry sighed and started tapping his foot on the floor, the waiting killing him. There was another room opposite Robbins’ and Harry being his curious self, he walked across the hallway and looked in through the window. Harry frowned. He recognised the unconscious man in the bed, Harry was sure of it.

No one was in the room and Harry’d be waiting ages yet for news on Robbins so entered the room. Harry was right, he did recognise the man. Theodore Nott. He was friends with Malfoy during school, Harry remembered. 

A healer joined Harry in the room, smiling at him. “Hello.” She greeted then went over to Theodore in the bed, running basic vital checks as far as Harry was aware. “Theo’s popular today. Are you here for his birthday, too?”

“No, I’m here for someone else but I recognised him and, well, yeah.” Harry explained and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. He felt like he was intruding, he hardly knew Theodore at Hogwarts, but his curiosity was too great. “What happened to him?”

“Bad set of curses. Our most experienced staff here can’t even diagnose some of the curses used. Been here in a coma for three years now and they’re still yet to think of anything.” The healer told him as she neatened out the bed sheets. “He use to have a regular visitor, I think it was his boyfriend, but I haven’t seen him in ages now. Maybe he moved on.”

“Maybe.” Harry agreed quietly. “Does anyone else visit now?” He felt sorry for Theodore. Harry would hate it if he was hurt like this and his friends and partner just stopped visiting, forgetting about him.

“Yes.” Harry was thankful for that, at least he had some visitors. “His two friends. I talk to them sometimes. Oh, what are their names…” She paused and looked nowhere in particular, trying to remember the names. “Oh, yes! Pansy and Blaise.”

Harry nodded absentmindedly, wondering why Pansy and Blaise visited but not Malfoy. As far as Harry could remember, Malfoy was closer to Theodore, so why would Malfoy not visit?

“Anyway, it’s nice for him to have people around him. Can’t imagine what it’d be like to be in his shoes.” The healer patted Harry on the shoulder then left the room. No, Harry couldn’t imagine what it’d be like either. He wondered if he was still consciously aware, if he could still hear things and feel the world around him.

Harry remembered that he was here for Robbins and muttered a quiet goodbye before turning to the door and opening it, accidentally colliding into someone who was trying to walk in. At that very moment, Harry wanted to crawl into a whole and never come out as Malfoy was stood in front of him, glaring as if his life depended on it.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Malfoy snapped, his hand coming up to Harry’s neck and squeezing before Harry batted him away.

“Calm down, I’m here with one of my students.” Harry replied, pissed off that Malfoy had reacted in such a way. Harry didn’t understand what his problem was.

Stepping past Malfoy, Harry returned to Robbins’ room, looking through the window to see the healers were still working with him and sighed, not wanting him to be in the same situation as Theodore.

Harry glanced back at Theodore’s room and saw that Malfoy was still stood in the doorway, staring into the room and not moving. Harry was still annoyed at the way Malfoy had behaved just a moment ago but Harry felt bad if he didn’t ask if he was okay.

“Malfoy?” He questioned quietly and put his hand on Malfoy’s shoulder, feeling how tense it was. When he didn’t get an answer, he pressed on. “Hey, you okay?”

Malfoy finally moved, shrugging Harry’s hand off of his shoulder but his eyes stayed fixed on Theodore. He grabbed the door and went to shut it. “If you don’t mind.” He said when Harry was in the way, and Harry of course moved, letting Malfoy shut the door in his face.

Harry glanced through the window to see Malfoy sit next to Theodore, looking like it was the last place he wanted to be. He could see him speaking, but didn’t know what he was saying. Feeling like he was intruding, Harry moved back to the other side of the hallway and sat in one of the waiting chairs, waiting for both Robbins to be okay and for Malfoy.

* * *

Draco closed the door and took a deep breath. He was here now, there was no point backing out. He moved over to the bed and sat down, looking at Theo.

“Hi.” He started, but that wasn’t good enough, not at all. “I’m sorry I haven’t visited in so long. I have to admit, I’ve been putting it off but Luna told me to come see you and you know what Luna is like…” He was rambling. Rambling to avoid the issue at hand.

“Theo.” He sighed and held Theo’s hand, his skin just as soft as always. “I feel like I’ve betrayed you, in so many ways. For starters, I’ve been avoiding you and all mentions of you. I turned my back on you, something I promised to never do and none of my excuses are good enough. I’m not strong like you, I’m weak and well, I blame myself because this is my fault. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be here.”

Draco took a deep breath and quickly wiped away the tear on his cheek. Now was not the time to be weak, he’d been weak for far too long. He had to be strong, strong like Theo.

“There’s another thing.” Draco gently stroked Theo’s hand with his thumb. “I tried, I really did try to stop it, but I couldn’t help it. I think I’ve fallen for someone else.” Just saying it felt like a weight off of his shoulders. “You will always mean something to me Theo but I don’t know how long you’re going to be here and I can’t wait forever, as much as I want to. I’m torn. Torn between my promise to you and my growing attraction to him.”

Draco looked down, finally breaking the contact he had with Theo, and let the tears fall, sniffing quietly. “Luna said talking to you would help but all I feel is guilt.” He looked back up at Theo, waiting something, anything that told him it was okay, or told him what to do. But there was nothing, like always. “Happy birthday.” He muttered and leaned closer to place a kiss on his lips before quickly walking out of the room.

“Malfoy?”

Draco swiftly wiped his cheeks. He was not going to cry in front of Potter. No way. “Yes, Potter? What is it that you require?” He was trying to be harsh, like he always was when he wanted to conceal his emotions but Potter being Potter saw right through it. Draco watched as Potter stood up and walked over to him, and then, to Draco’s surprise, Potter hugged him. It was nice, comforting even. Draco let himself sink into Potter’s arms and hugged back, gripping onto the back of Harry’s coat as he cried into his shoulder. Potter rubbed his back soothingly and hummed something along the lines of “It’s okay” and “Shh”. After the hug, Draco was lead to sit down next to him on the uncomfortable waiting chairs.

“Want to talk about it?”

Draco scoffed. “There’s no point. You’re clever, Potter, you don’t need me to talk about it.” At this point, Draco hadn’t exactly kept his emotions to his chest. If his was in Potter’s shoes, he would have guessed what was going on.

“You were dating Theodore, weren’t you?”

“He doesn’t like his full name.” Draco said on instinct, the memory of Nott Sr sparking in his mind, Theo hating the way his father used his full name. Potter wasn’t to know, and now he was snapping at him for a ridiculous reason. Groaning, he buried his face in his hands.

“And you’re grieving?”

Draco had no idea why he said it as a question. Of course he was fucking grieving. Draco groaned again. He really had to stop being angry at Potter, it wasn’t his fault. It was Draco’s fault. “It’s always you.”

“What?” Potter sounded surprised, he really shouldn’t have. Draco and Potter always had a fixation on each other, and now, it wasn’t hate but something of the complete opposite.

Draco sat up and turned to face Potter, looking at him directly in his fucking green eyes. “Don’t play dumb. We’ve always been playing stupid games with each other.”

“You saying this is a game?”

“Fuck’s sake.” Draco exclaimed, rolling his eyes. Why was Potter not getting it? “Clearly I’m bad at explaining to someone with such a low intelligence so I’ll put it simply. I love Theo but I need to move on.” He felt like he was repeating the words Luna or Pansy or even Blaise had spoke to him. It didn’t feel real saying it, he needed to mean it. “I  _ want  _ to move on.”

Potter looked like he was examining him and the words he had just spoken and then, oh, Draco was in bliss. Potter’s lips met his own and it wasn’t just a kiss, it was much more than that. It was filled full of understanding and new promise and fresh starts. Draco had forgotten what it was like to kiss someone with emotion, and have them kiss back with equal feeling. The kiss before was nice, yes, but Draco had been suppressing his feelings in guilt then. Now, after talking to Theo, it felt like it was okay. Well, more than okay, fucking fantastic. He just hoped Theo understood.

Potter pulled away and his eyes were searching his face again. He did that a lot, Draco had noticed. He was also cautious with every move he made. Draco didn’t want that. He’d never wanted people walking on eggshells around him. After all, he’s a Malfoy, and Malfoys have to break a little bit once in awhile.

Draco went to kiss Potter again and it was just his luck that the door behind him had opened and someone had cleared their throat. 

“Mr Potter?” The person asked and Draco leaned away from Potter, gritting his teeth.

“Is he okay?” Potter leapt to his feet to speak to the healer and Draco had fully intended to stay slumped in the chair, but no, Potter had to drag him up with him.

“He is set for a full recovery. In fact, I think he wants to speak to you.”

Yet again, Draco had fully intended to stay in the corridor and wait but Potter had grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the room where a boy of around thirteen was lying in the bed, smiling at Harry.

“Robbins, don’t you dare do that again. I was worried.” Potter said as he came to the boy’s side, leaving Draco to linger by the door, not really feeling welcome.

“You can call me Jamie, Professor Potter.”

“Then call me Harry. We are outside of Hogwarts, so I don’t see why not.”

“Thank you Harry, and you, Mr Malfoy-”

“Please, call me Draco.” Draco interrupted, joining in on the  _ call me by my first name  _ chaos. From the top of his head, Draco could only recall allowing six people to call him by his first name. But the boy was injured, so Draco let him be the seventh.

“You both helped me. If it wasn’t for your dueling demonstration, I wouldn’t have been able to protect myself.” The boy seemed genuinely thankful, so Draco nodded as if to say  _ you’re welcome.  _ That was all the child was getting out of him, he had already let him use his first name, anything else and Draco could be mistaken as someone who had a heart. As Draco said when he first saw Potter again in his shop, he had an image to keep up. He’d had a blip, and now he was going to get back on his feet. No one will know what’s hit them.

“Jamie!” A woman ran into the room and hugged the boy, who yelled back “Mum!” with equal volume. Draco took this opportunity to sneak out of the room, Potter following him.

“Do I get to call you Draco too?” Potter asked, nudging Draco with his shoulder.

“Don’t push it, Potter.” Draco warned, sparing a glance at Theo’s room before walking away down the corridor, heading for the floos. Potter was still following.

“Whatever you say, Draco.” Potter got a glare for that, but it was half hearted to match the teasing.

When Draco reached the floos, he paused and turned to face Potter. “I’m not promising this to be easy. I’m not going to force you into anything either. If you think this-” Draco waved around him and the hospital, hoping Potter picked up on what he meant by  _ this _ . “-is too much, and I wouldn’t blame you, then you can walk away. I won’t blame you.”

Potter stared at him for a long time then cocked his head to the side, shaking his head in disbelief. “When do I ever walk away from anything if it’s hard? If I want something, I’ll fight for it.”

“But I-”

“Just shut up and kiss me.” Potter grabbed the front of Draco’s shirt and pulled him closer, causing their fourth kiss. Not that Draco was counting or anything. This kiss was messy and quick, but all the same, just as good as the rest. “See you around, Draco.”

Draco rolled his eyes and flipped his middle finger up at Harry before entering the floo, heading straight to his flat and binning all the alcohol he had stashed away, feeling relief when he did so. He didn’t need a coping mechanism anymore, and if at any stage, he needed one, it would not be alcohol and one night stands.

* * *

“How is he?” McGonagall asked as soon as Harry returned to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.

“He’ll be fine.” Harry said, McGonagall and anyone else listening sighing with relief. “How is everything here?”

“Mr Weasley was a hero.” Harry turned to where Ron was sat and raised his eyebrow. He didn’t doubt for a moment that Ron was amazing. “Got everyone else still there out and even duelled with the woman.”

“Yeah, the bitch escaped though.” Ron grunted and earned a  _ ‘there are children around’ _ from both Harry and McGonagall.

“I’d like to thank you again, despite her escaping. You prevented many of my students coming to harm.”

Ron waved it off. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Is there anything else we can do?” Harry asked and as soon as McGonagall said no, he grabbed Ron’s arm and dragged him back to his quarters, ignoring Ron pestering him with questions about  _ why they were in such a rush. _

“Alright, what’s happened?”

“Nothing.” Harry lied as he forced Ron to sit down. “I just want to hear about my favourite couple getting engaged.” That was technically true, he did want to hear about it, but he also wanted to scream from the rooftops that he kissed Draco again and they’re kind of together. Harry wasn’t sure but it’s what it felt like. And, it was definitely Draco now, partly because it annoyed Draco and partly because it made it all seem far more real to Harry.

“Do you think it’s too soon?”

“No!” Harry said without even having to think about it. “You’ve known each other for, what, eleven years?”

“No, I mean, do you think we’re too young?”

“No.” Harry said instantly again. “Let’s be honest here, when have any of us ever cared about our age?” Harry watched as Ron pondered on that statement. “Hermione is becoming one of the best magical lawyers out there, and she’s about ten, maybe more, years younger than the rest.” Ron seemed to think about what Harry had said again. “Trust me, age doesn’t matter. If you love someone, go for it. That’s what I think anyway.” Harry shrugged and leaned back, smiling to himself.

They sat in silence, Ron just staring at Harry before speaking, “Cut the bullshit.” Harry looked at him shocked, not understanding how what he had said or done was bullshit. “Tell me right now what’s happened.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Nothing happened, honestly.” He lied again and Ron gave him a pointed look. “Fine!” Harry gave up, throwing his hands up in defence. “I may have got with Draco again.”

“You did what?!” Ron exclaimed, his voice loud and full of shock, before sighing. “I can’t say I’m not surprised you’re with him, I’m just surprised how quick you took my advice. I take it he told you everything?”

“Yeah.” As far as Harry was aware, it was everything. He couldn’t think of anything else that there could be. What he had learnt at St Mungo’s explained everything. Ron didn’t say anything so Harry continued. “It’s really complicated, like  _ really _ .”

“When is it not?” Ron added, making Harry laugh a little. He was right, of course, his life was completely complicated. But Harry couldn’t see it being anything else.

Ron left a little after that in a hurry, saying George will kill him if he’s late for his shift at Wizard Wheezes. Harry just laughed as he panicked and left through the floo. It was about thirty seconds later when an owl flew through the window, dropped a letter on Harry’s lap then left just as quick as it entered.

Harry picked up the letter and quickly opened it, laughing happily as he read the one sentence on the parchment. Nothing had changed, but at the same time, everything had changed, and Harry was glad.

_ You’re an arsehole, Harry Potter. _

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (there's still so many loose ends to sort out just wait it's all gonna kick off veryyyy soon. these boys don't get an easy ride)


	4. Spider Nests

* * *

“Afternoon, Potter.” Draco greeted as he entered the professor’s office, catching Harry off guard as he was just finishing his lunch work.

“Draco!” Harry called from where he was sat at his desk and in retaliation for using his first name, Draco threw his coat at his face. “What are you doing here?” Harry held the coat close to him. It smelled like Draco, but lacked the usual faint smell of alcohol Harry had become used to.

“I'm not here for you so don't get your hopes up.” Harry didn't even know he had his hopes up, but they came crashing down quickly as he wondered what Draco was here for, if it wasn't Harry. Draco was watching Harry intensely and let his lip twist up into a smirk. “I'm here for that.”

Harry turned to see what Draco was pointing at. “Oh.” Harry said quietly as he stared at his big pile of books and parchment all in a mess.

“I can't _stand_ mess.” Draco muttered to himself and without asking Harry if it was okay, he walked over to the mess and picked up one of the books, examined it then placed it in a bag with, from what it looked like, an extension charm on.

“I’ve got a lesson any minute now.” Harry pointed out but Draco didn’t seem to care as he sat down on the floor, going through the parchment pile and vanishing the sheet on top. “Oi! I might have needed that!”

“It had a large layer of dust on top of it. I doubt you needed it.” Draco countered back and vanished the next sheet in the pile. “Go and teach. You won’t even know I’m here.” Harry doubted that. Yes, no one else would know that he was there but Harry would, and he’d be constantly thinking about him. Draco has always been his distraction, for years.

Harry heard people enter the classroom and left Draco to his tiding, trusting him to know what was important enough to keep. Draco’s reassurance was actually believable for the first part of the lesson, as at some points, Harry even forgot he was there but after that point it was completely different. About half an hour into the lesson, there was a loud scream coming from his office and everyone’s eyes grew wide with panic, them all especially shaken up from the attack on Hogsmeade a couple of days ago.

“Shit.” Harry cursed and ran back to his office, swinging the door open to see Draco stood on the desk screaming at the floor.

“Fuck! You tidy your own office!” Draco yelled and with a quick glance at the floor, he jumped off the desk and bolted out of the room. Harry sighed and closed the door, glaring at Draco as he stood awkwardly at the side of the room, the fifth years he was teaching looking at them suspiciously.

“Do you have an excuse for interrupting my lesson?” Harry spoke to him like a child and did his best to ignore everyone watching interestedly.

“That mess, Professor Potter, is home to a spider's nest. And not just small spiders.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Merlin, you sound like Ron.” He earned a slap on the back of the head for that and for the rest of the lesson, Draco just stood by the wall and watched Harry help the students perfect their spells.

At the end of the lesson, it seemed like they were all lingering around to see what was going to happen between the two men next but eventually, they all left.

“I give it around an hour before the whole school knows that Draco Malfoy screams like a girl.”

Draco moved behind Harry and gripped his hips, pulling him closer. “I bet you love it, though.” Draco kissed Harry’s neck, making him arch his neck to the side to give Draco more access. Thinking about Draco’s screaming was turning him on, and the blond nibbling and sucking at his neck wasn’t helping.

“In ten minutes my next class will be here.” Harry informed him but still reached up to lace his fingers into Draco’s hair.

“Plenty of time.” Draco muttered back before spinning Harry around roughly and lifting him onto one of the tables in the room, Harry wrapping his legs around Draco in return. “I could take you. Right here, right now, on this desk.”

“I wouldn’t argue with you.” Harry used his legs to pull Draco closer, suppressing a moan as Draco collided with his crotch. Draco leaned down to kiss Harry deeply, and Harry kissed back just as much.

“I bet you wouldn't.” Draco groaned against his mouth and grinded against Harry, making him finally let out the moan.

“Fuck.” Harry's hands ran down Draco’s front before fumbling with the buttons on his shirt, desperate to get it off. He only managed one button before his hands were yanked away and he was pushed back onto the table. Harry would have cared about the fact that he hit his head when he went down and his glasses had fallen off of his face, but he was too preoccupied with Draco lowering his trousers to care.

“I'm so lucky, you know that.” Draco’s cold hands caressed Harry’s inner thigh and his breath caught in his throat. It had been so long since Harry had any sort of action with anyone, his sex drive at the highest it’s been in a while and Draco teasing him wasn't helping. He looked towards the blond but all he saw was a blur. He really needed to think about getting contact lenses, or even fixing his eyesight.

Harry moaned again as he felt a hand around his cock and gripped the side of the table. “Fuck!” Despite not being able to see clearly, Harry knew that Draco was smirking. He could just _tell._ The blond pale blur moved down and then, oh, Harry was in heaven. Nothing had felt this good. Harry supposed this was one of the positives of Draco sleeping around; he was good. Merlin, he was really good. The way his mouth moved around Harry’s cock was simply magnificent. Draco’s tongue moved in ways that Harry had never experienced and it didn't take long for Harry to come, arching his back and screaming out Draco’s name.

“You're so sexy when you scream my name.” Draco purred and pulled Harry up into a sitting position, licking any remaining cum off of his fingers. “I can't wait for you to do it again.”

Harry was still getting his breath back but he needed to return the favour. Grabbing Draco, he jumped off the desk and snuck his hand into Draco’s pants, smirking when he heard Draco gasp. He felt nice in Harry’s hand, and he could already feel the pre-cum. Harry jerked his hand up and down and used the other hand to rest on the small of Draco’s back, letting him hold onto his shoulders to prevent him falling as his knees wobbled. It wasn't long before Harry’s hand went sticky and Draco was moaning into Harry’s neck, his hand gripping onto his hair tightly.

“Merlin.” Draco muttered before composing himself, wiping his sweaty forehead off with his sleeve and waving his wand to clean up the mess. He bent down to pick up Harry’s glasses and this time, Harry had no shame in checking out his beautiful arse. “No one would know what we've just done, your hair remains in the same state as usual.” Draco came back into focus as Harry’s glasses were pushed gently onto his face. They both smartened each other up and stood innocently as Harry called his next class in.

Harry was doing well to keep his face neutral, but that was all thrown off balance as Smith sat down at _the_ table and Draco snorted. Harry elbowed him in the ribs while trying to suppress his own laughter. It was unprofessional to be laughing at such things. But Smith deserved it, so they could both be forgiven.

“Please tell me we’re not getting another lecture from _him_?” Smith spat and Harry could see Draco’s shoulders bobbing up and down in the corner of his eye. This was not going to go well.

“Oh.” Draco stepped forward and wiped his thumb on the desk. “I missed some.” He elegantly sucked the tip of his thumb, winked at Smith then went into Harry’s office.

Smith looked horrified, and tried to move seats but there was nowhere left. “That's disgusting!”

“He just had a milkshake, it got a bit messy.” Harry shrugged as his explanation and heard a sharp laugh from his office followed by a scream and Draco yelling, “Fucking spiders!” Something crashed and Harry just rolled his eyes, getting on with his lesson and throwing in any innuendo he could, finding joy out of hearing Draco laugh. He would have only been laughing if he was listening to the lesson, and the fact that Draco was listening so closely filled Harry up with even more joy and he couldn't wait until he could finish what they started.

That was probably Harry’s longest lesson to date, or at least that's what it felt like. Smith was the last one to leave the room, glaring at Harry as he went and as soon as the door closed behind him, Harry ran off into his office and found Draco sat on top of his desk, still tidying but refusing to go anywhere near the floor.

“Scared of spiders? Really?” Harry raised his eyebrow at Draco, who glared and pointed to the corner where a giant spider sat. It wasn't as big as the ones he'd encountered when he ventured into Aragog’s home that time, but it was still big, perhaps the size of a tarantula. “Couldn't you have got rid of it?”

“I'm not angering the beast.”

“Wimp.” Harry countered before going over to the spider and levitating it out of the window.

“Its family will attack you now.” Draco muttered and as if on cue, a whole army of spiders ran out from the half tidied mess at him, most of them even bigger than the initial spider. Harry let out a scream as they swarmed him, climbing up his legs. Draco didn't help Harry one bit and after a long minute, Harry had removed them all from the room. “Told you.” Was all Draco had to say as Harry leaned against the wall, panting.

“Thanks for the help.”

Draco smirked at him but said nothing, summoning another book from the floor and slipping it into his bag.

“Are you stealing my books?” Harry questioned as he picked another book up and examined it.

“Not all of them. And if I remember correctly, I gave you this one.” Harry remembered too, when he went into Draco’s book shop and picked up _The Darkest of the Dark Arts_ , which had now also been placed in the bag.

“It was a gift, so surely I'm supposed to keep it?”

“My journal was another gift but you gave that back.” Draco argued back, his long finger pointing accusingly. “I'm still annoyed about that.” He moved his bag to the side and jumped off the table to step closer to Harry. “But-” Draco’s hands held on to Harry’s. “-I’m sure you can make it up to me.”

Harry closed the space between the two of them. “What do you suggest I do?” Harry watched as Draco leaned down to Harry’s ear and held his breath, waiting for Draco’s words.

“I want you in my arse.”

“That can be arranged.” Harry led Draco into his living quarters and pushed the blond onto the bed. If it was any other situation, Harry was sure Draco would have criticized the fact that his bedsheets weren’t silk, but at that precise moment, all they could care about was getting each other’s clothes off.

“You're so hot.” Draco murmured as he admired Harry’s body, making him feel truly admired. When Harry set eyes on Draco’s body, he noticed all the scars, but now wasn't the time to ask about them. It was an unspoken rule in some ways; don't bring up scars from the war in moments of intimacy.

Draco found his way to Harry’s dick and started massaging the base. As much as Harry enjoyed it, it was his turn to please Draco. He climbed on top of Draco and lowered his trousers, taking a moment to admire Draco’s cock before using one hand to rub the length and the other hand grabbing the lube from the bedside cabinet, coating his fingers then entering them into Draco’s arse.

Draco moaned loudly and arched his back, both hands moving to grip the sheets. Harry continued until he was satisfied he was ready, and then, lined himself up.

“Hurry-” Harry rolled his eyes at Draco’s impatience at a time like this but successfully shut him up when his cock slide into his arse. Draco sat up so his arms were wrapped around Harry, his fingers digging into his back. Slowly, Harry started thrusting back and forth, and the sounds Draco was making was orgasmic in itself.

“Yes!” Draco groaned into Harry’s neck, his warm breath sending shivers through Harry. Draco sucked at Harry’s neck as Harry’s hand went up to his hair, gripping onto the soft blond locks. Harry could feel Draco’s cock against his bare chest and Merlin, it felt amazing.

Harry’s pace become rougher and Draco’s grip became tighter.

“Fuck, Draco.” Harry earned a purposeful harsh bite on his neck for the use of his first name, or maybe it was because of how close Draco was, as seconds later, Draco screamed into Harry’s neck. Harry matched him with an equal scream of pleasure as he reached his climax. At that precise moment, as he held Draco in his arms, it seemed that this was all that mattered to Harry. Not the sex, but Draco.

Harry slid out of Draco and was panting, sweat beads on his forehead. Draco was panting too, but it didn’t stop him from kissing Harry. Both of them were trying to get their breaths back as they kissed. It was a mess, in Harry’s opinion, but he loved every second of it. The feeling of breathing heavily against Draco’s lips, and Draco doing the exact same back. Harry didn’t know if anything else could be this perfect.

They both lied down on the bed, Draco’s arm under Harry’s head as he watched him, his grey eyes glistening with joy. Harry’s eyes flicked down to Draco’s chest and he fully took in what he saw. The Sectumsempra scars.

Before Harry could even say anything about it, Draco put his finger to Harry’s lips.

“Don’t.” Draco said, ordered even. He sounded like he didn’t want to be messed with.

“But-” Harry tried to say something but the look in Draco’s eyes stopped him. It was a sensitive subject, Harry knew that, but he had never apologise properly and now that they were dating, he’d feel even more guilt every time he saw the scars than the guilt he’d feel if he apologised.

“You don’t need to say it, I know you’re sorry, but it’s in the past. Forget about it.”

Harry nodded slowly to what Draco had said and gently traced the thin crisscross of scars until his fingers reached just above Draco’s right hip, where a thick jagged scar sat.

“That wasn’t me.” Harry mumbled quietly. It didn’t match the Sectumsempra scars, it looked deeper and worse in a way. Harry wanted to know where Draco had got it, but then, Harry understood that the war was a rough time and the stories behind the scar could be anything. Draco moved Harry’s hand away from the scar and entwined their fingers, closing his eyes as he did.

Harry smiled at Draco. He looked perfect, despite all the scars, Harry didn’t know how he’d managed to pull of getting someone like Draco. His personality may be a little… sharp at times, but it was a part of Draco, and he wouldn’t change that for the world.

Harry shuffled closer and nuzzled his face into Draco’s neck, breathing in the familiar scent and relaxing. It was like Draco made Harry high.

“Potter.” Draco said quietly, tapping Harry’s shoulder. “Potter.” Draco said more persistently when Harry didn’t move. Harry didn’t want to move. “There’s a cat patronus by the door.”

“Shit!” Harry instantly leapt into action and turned to see the cat, that was indeed McGonagall’s patronus like he had thought. “Shit.” Harry cursed again and got up, cleaning himself off with magic and grabbing his clothes from the floor.

“What?” Draco asked groggily from the bed as he watched Harry get dressed. Harry glanced at how Draco was lying on the bed, looking so inviting and so tempting, but he couldn’t.

“Meeting with the rest of the staff about the Hogsmeade attack.” He explained as he pulled on a shirt from the floor, not caring that it was probably Draco’s. He was late already, there was no time to check if it was the correct clothes.

“Potter. The pocket of my coat.” Draco said randomly and Harry didn’t understand the meaning of it until he pulled out a silk scarf from the coat hanging up. Oh. Harry’s hand shot to his neck, where he could feel the tender marks that Draco had left behind. Draco looked smug as he pulled up the blankets over himself.

“See you in a bit.” Harry gave a rushed wave before leaving the room and speed walking to the Headmistress’ office, where all the teachers, Shacklebolt and the head of the Auror department, Williamson, were sat waiting for him. “Sorry I’m late.” Harry mumbled as he sank into the only empty chair, adjusting the scarf awkwardly as he felt McGonagall looking at him knowingly.

“Pleasure you could finally join us, Professor Potter.” Williamson greeted, but it didn’t sound friendly, more annoyed if anything. “If we could start now.”

“Yes.” Shacklebolt agreed and stood up. “The country is on red alert and the Aurors are working extremely hard to catch this criminal, and any others planning a copycat attack.” Williamson nodded to confirm what Shacklebolt had said.

“A student was almost killed yet I don’t see anything actually happening.” Harry spoke up. Maybe the corrupt government from the past had affected the way he viewed the Ministry, but when he was doing his Auror training, he could tell many people had the _Voldemort is dead there’s no more risk_ mentality. “There’s no more security here than usual, and when the attack was happening, Ron and the teachers here were the only ones doing something.”

Williamson turned to face Harry. “I appreciate your concern, Mr Potter, but-”

“But nothing. Do you have leads on this woman?”

“No.” Williamson admitted.

“Have you been working at all?” Harry was pretty shocked they didn’t have any leads at this stage. There would have been many witnesses that must have seen something.

“Of course we have!” Williamson defended, rising to his feet and seeming very angry at Harry’s words.

“Calm down, Williamson.” Shacklebolt said and Williamson sat down, still looking angry but was now avoiding looking at Harry. “The main reason why this meeting is taking place is to discuss the security here.” Shacklebolt continued and started with McGonagall and the other teachers, decided on the best course of action to keep the students safe.

Harry stayed quiet but occasionally added his opinion on proposals. The war had given him a wide knowledge on tactics that worked or didn’t, so in situations like this he proved very useful. Yet, he had always hoped he wouldn’t have to need this information again.

They all finally came to a solutions that worked for everyone, taking what seemed like hours to get to that point and then, on top of that, they wanted to go through all witness accounts from the professors and the students.

“Surely you should have done this already?” Harry had muttered, making his annoyance fully aware for everyone.

It was completely dark outside when the meeting finally finished, and as Harry walked back to his rooms, the corridors were silent and empty. Harry thought for a moment about if Draco had left, but Harry was wearing his shirt and he was sure Draco wouldn’t have wanted to put on Harry’s clothes, deeming them all unacceptable for a _well-to-do wizard_.

When Harry entered his bedroom, his heart warmed at the sight he saw. Draco was curled up under the bedsheets, fast asleep and looking so peaceful. As carefully as he could, Harry tiptoed over to the bed, took his clothes off and slipped under the sheets with Draco.

“Good night.” Draco didn’t reply of course, and Harry placed a gentle kiss on Draco’s forehead before falling asleep with his arm slung over Draco.

* * *

_The door burst open and there was yelling, so much angry yelling. Draco couldn’t make out what they were saying, as his focus was on Theo. Theo was scared, so scared, and there was nothing Draco could do. There was, though, there was so much he could have done, but it was like there was a barrier preventing him from doing anything._

_Theo was screaming and screaming, he wouldn’t stop. The screams echoed around Draco’s head and he too, screamed. Screaming for it to stop, anything for the suffering to end._

_“Draco! Help!” Draco heard someone yell as he was plunged into darkness. He couldn’t do anything. He was falling into darkness. There was nothing._

_“Draco!”_

_Tears were streaming down his face as he held his hands over his ears. There was nothing he could do. In his head, he repeated over and over again that he was sorry. He tried to say it out loud but no sound came out._

_The darkness wasn’t lifting and the screaming kept on going. Going and going. Draco wished something would end it and then, something did. There was a sharp pain in Draco’s right side, making everything go off kilter and him delirious. Everything was fading into nothing, and then, it got so much worse._

_One final scream. The worst one out of the lot. An ear piercing scream of pain and misery and suffering. Draco could do nothing. It was all his fault._

“No!” Draco screamed, finally getting sound out as he jolted awake, sitting upright. He panted, trying to get his breath back as he looked around frantically for clues as to where he was. This wasn’t his home. Why wasn’t he at home?

“Draco?”

He heard the voice next to him and glanced to see Potter lying in the bed with him. Draco stared at him and he tried to regulate his breathing, but nothing was working. It was all his fault.

“It’s okay.” Potter sat up and Draco felt his arms wrap around his torso, pulling him in close. Draco hadn’t even realised he was crying until Potter gently wiped the tears off of his cheek. As Potter pulled him closer, Draco lost himself in his arms, letting out all the tears he was trying to keep in. Potter gently rocked him back and forth and rubbed his back supportively. The comfort was nice, and after minutes of crying, Draco had finally relaxed enough to talk.

“Sorry.” He murmured, not quite sure if it was because he woke Potter up, because Theo would have been fine if it wasn’t for him, or both.

“Don’t apologise.” Harry wiped Draco’s cheek again and gave him a warm smile.

Draco sighed and buried his face in his hands. He was doing well and now this dream had set him back again. Merlin, he felt so useless.

“Want to go back to sleep?”

Draco shook his head. No, he couldn’t have another dream like that.

“How about a hot drink?”

Draco looked up at Potter and couldn’t help a tiny smile grow on his lips. Potter was trying so hard, and Draco appreciated it so much. How lucky was he, that despite all the shit in his life, Potter was sticking by him.

“Hot drink it is.” Potter grinned and got up, leaving the bedroom and coming back a couple of minutes later with two mugs. He handed one to Draco and sipped at the other as he sat back down on the bed.

Draco took one sip from the mug and knew that he’d never tasted hot chocolate this good before. “It’s good.” He took another sip and closed his eyes as the hot chocolate warmed him up.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Potter asked gently and in return, Draco shook his head, staying quiet as he drank his hot chocolate. Potter didn’t ask any more questions, and Draco appreciated that too.

The last thing he needed was to be bombarded with questions, just like his mother did. Draco sighed again at the memory of his mother. He hadn’t seen her in so long, but didn’t really fancy going to see her either. That bridge was burnt a long time ago.

“I want to show you something.” Potter said after they’d both finished their drinks. Draco watched as Potter got up and grabbed a wad of photos, passing them to Draco. It was dark, so he couldn’t really see the photos, but when Potter cast a lumos charm, he could see a little boy with blue hair smiling up at him from where he sat cuddling his toy wolf. Draco looked at the next photo and it was the blue haired boy again, but this time he was in the arms of a woman that looked so much like Aunt Bella and his mother.

“That’s my aunt Andromeda, isn’t it?” Draco asked quietly, pointing to the woman.

“Yeah, and the boy is your cousin.”

Draco remembered now. Tonks and Lupin’s child. He looked so much like the pair of them, and even had the look of the Black family about him.

“Why are you showing me these?” Draco shoved the photos back into Potter’s hand.

“Maybe, do you want to see him?” Potter suggested, but didn’t even sound sure himself. “I’m his godfather, so I could convince Andy, and she is your aunt so you could catch up with her too?”

“Potter, are you mad?” Draco was almost one hundred percent sure he was. “I don’t know the woman, my family casting her out because of her marriage so I’m sure she wouldn’t think very highly of me, and that’s not even considering this.” He showed Potter his dark mark for emphasis. “And considering all that, I very much doubt she’d let me near a child.”

Potter sighed and returned to lying down, patting the space next to him for Draco to lie back down, which he did.

“People have changed.” Potter argued, making Draco huff as he rested his head on Harry’s shoulder. “At least think about it?”

Draco shrugged. He’d already thought about it, and his answer would always be no. Children were pests and made a mess of everything. Plus, Draco could really do without the stress of meeting Aunt Andromeda along with the constant stress with Theo that never seemed to go away.

Potter fell back asleep soon after that, but Draco stayed awake, staring out of the window as the sun slowly came up, it’s golden rays shining through the window onto them both. The light made Potter look even more magnificent, his black hair now having a golden hue to it and his caramel skin glowing.

Draco couldn’t help but kiss Potter’s soft lips and when he leaned back, a pair of green eyes were watching him. Draco smiled and kissed him again, his time Potter kissing back.

“My own personal alarm clock.” Potter joked, grinning as he grabbed his glasses and pushed them onto his face. Draco never noticed that Potter’s eyes were smaller with the glasses on, and reached forward to lift the glasses off so he could see the big emerald eyes again. “I can’t see.” Potter complained but Draco just chuckled and ruffled his hair. It was already messy so there was no harm in making it messier.

Potter sat up slightly and looked at Draco. “Are you okay?”

Draco rolled his eyes. “I'm fine. I don't need you worrying about me.” Draco swung his legs off of the bed and sighed. “Speaking of people worrying, I must get back to mother.”

“Narcissa?”

“No.” Draco scoffed and picked up his clothes off of the floor, all of them creased. “Pansy, of course.” Potter nodded and watched Draco get dressed, just like Draco had done with him yesterday. Draco liked being watched, and deliberately took longer. “You can keep the shirt, Potter, it looked good on you.” He chucked the shirt at Potter’s face, smirking. Wearing no shirt was now the option, but with his coat done up, no one would know.

“When will I see you again?”

Draco shrugged, because he honestly didn't know when, but he was sure he'd write to Potter and meet up soon. He pecked Potter’s lips then headed for the door.

“Bye, Draco!”

He turned around to put up his two middle fingers before exiting the room. It was still pretty early in the morning so no one was around, making Draco’s job of exiting Hogwarts unseen so much easier and as soon as he passed the gates, he apparated home, hanging up the coat on the rack.

Someone cleared their throats and Draco turned to see Pansy sat on the sofa, her legs crossed and a stern look on her face.

“Where have you been? And why in Salazar’s name are you shirtless?”

Draco grinned smugly and patted her knee as he sat down next to her. “That's for me to know and to refuse to tell you just to annoy you.”

It had the desired effect because Pansy did indeed look very annoyed. “What is going on?” She asked, looking at him suspiciously. “There's no alcohol in the flat, you _visited_ Theo, you smell of-” She paused to sniff him. “-sex and cheap aftershave. At least your sex habits haven't changed.” But they had. It wasn't emotionless anymore.

“How's your little, what shall I call it, crush on Luna?” Draco asked, his best attempt in changing the subject.

“She's dating Ginny Weasley- that's besides the point! What is going on with you?”

Draco shrugged and stood up. “Wouldn't know.” He walked off into his bedroom and used a basic cleaning spell on himself before changing clothes.

“Draco Malfoy?” Pansy was still sat on the sofa and was even more suspicious than before. “You wouldn't be shagging Harry Potter, would you?” Draco couldn't hide the grin from creeping onto his face, and it was enough for Pansy to know the answer to her question. “Oh my god, you are!”

Draco held his hands up in defence as she finally stood up from the sofa. He couldn't tell if she was angry, excited or just wanted more answers.

“I've got to go to work!” He said quickly and rushed out of the door to head to work. He would keep doing this Pansy, running away whenever he needed to answer her questions but he had always done that. It was how their friendship worked. However, he knew he'd have to tell her eventually, except he'd string it out as long as possible, at least until he’d start to call Potter by his first name anyway, and that could take years. _Potter_ just seemed much more natural than _Harry_.

* * *

Harry thought about what could go wrong with his little plan, but there was no going back. Teddy was squirming by his side, tugging at his hand and begging to be picked up. Harry ignored it as they reached the bookshop. The door was open but no one was in there.

“Harry!” Teddy wailed and gave an almighty tug of his arm, pulling him completely of balance. Harry didn't know how a three year old had so much strength.

“No.” Harry said, already knowing the question he was going to ask. “You're old enough to walk by yourself, you've got to learn to be independent.”

Teddy pouted and sat down on the floor, muttering something about how his Nana carried him but it was all a blur of toddler gibberish.

There was a sound in the back room and then the door opened, revealing Draco. His eyebrow raised at seeing Harry, and for a moment Harry thought it would be okay, but then Draco noticed Teddy on the floor.

“No!” Draco snapped instantly, panic written all over his face. “I'm not having children in here.”

Harry gave Draco his best pleading look and said, “He’s not doing any harm.” He wished he could take that statement back as when they both looked down at the little boy, he had crawled over to one of the shelves and had pulled out a book.

“Don't touch that!” Draco yelled at him, yanking the book out of his hands and placing it on a higher shelf. Harry could see what was about to happen, and sighed as his guess was accurate. Teddy started wailing and throwing his arms around, having his usual _I didn't get my way_ tantrum. Sighing, Harry picked him up and let the boy cry into his shoulder.

“We’re going to the park, if you would like to join us.” The mention of the park got Teddy’s attention and now he was babbling excitedly.

“I'm working.” Draco told him coldly and sat down at the desk, grabbing the parchment and starting to write on it before pausing to look back at Harry suspiciously. “And you should be working too.”

“This is more important.” Harry said, and it was the truth. McGonagall didn't mind getting someone to cover his lessons when he wanted to go see Teddy, which wasn't regular enough in Harry’s opinion, but Andy had been nice enough to let him have Teddy on such short notice. If Draco’s issue was seeing Andy, then he could see Teddy without having to see Andy. “Please come with us.”

“No. I don't do children.” Draco sounded like he couldn't be budged, but that didn't mean Harry was going to give up. “Don’t give me that look.” Harry kept the pleading look up until Draco huffed and rolled his eyes.

“One hour.”

Harry smiled happily and even Teddy clapped his hands as Draco got up, putting his coat on before joining the two of them outside after setting up a number of wards on the shop.

“There's a park down there if you don't want to apparate.” Draco told Harry helpfully, pointing down the street. Harry probably would have apparated to Teddy’s usual park if it wasn’t for that.

Harry let Teddy walk the way, holding Harry’s hand and then Draco’s so he was in the middle. Draco didn't seem too pleased with holding the little boy’s hand, but he didn't snatch his hand away when the smaller clammy hand grabbed it, so that was a positive.

Harry noticed that the tips of Teddy’s hair were turning back, just like they did whenever Harry was around. Draco seemed to notice too and gave Harry a suspicious look, but didn't say anything and instead just opened the gate to the park for Teddy.

“Swing!” Teddy exclaimed excitedly when he saw the swings, pointing over to them.

“Do you want to push him?” Harry asked Draco, just hoping that he'd say yes and he'd start to bond with his cousin.

“Merlin no.” Draco let go of Teddy’s hand and sat on the furthest swing from the child ones as Harry gently pushed Teddy in the swing, glancing at Draco sitting there with his arms crossed.

“Why he sad?” Teddy asked Harry, also looking at Draco. Harry stopped the swing and lifted Teddy out of it, lowering to his height to talk to him.

“I don't think he likes children very much.” Harry didn't think a three year old needed to know the full reason why Draco was in a mood, Harry guessing it was something to do with not being close to his family, which was something Harry understood. But he had a family now, and so did Draco, he just needed to notice it.

“He doesn't like me?” Teddy pouted and looked very sad, so Harry put his arm around him.

“Who wouldn't like you?” That made Teddy smile. “He just doesn't know you, so why don't you go talk to him?” Forcing Draco to be friendly with Teddy was never something he wanted to do, so Teddy would have to do some of the work himself and Harry fully believed that half an hour with Teddy would make anyone love him.

“Okay!” Teddy ran over to Draco and climbed onto his lap. Harry decided to watch from a distance instead of going over, otherwise Draco might palm Teddy off.

“What do you want?” Draco asked coldly. Harry had always noticed the way people made their voice lighter when talking to children, but with Draco he was exactly the same with everyone.

“You have a pointy face.” Teddy said and reached up to touch the tip of Draco’s nose which had gone slightly red in the cold. “Why do you have a pointy face?”

“Because my parents have pointy faces.” Draco bluntly informed Teddy, holding the little boy on his lap so he didn't fall off. Harry saw that as a big improvement.

“My parents are dead.” Teddy said but not with sadness, it was just like he was saying anything else but Draco seemed affected, leaving his eyes closed for longer than normal. “Did you know my parents?”

“Not really, but your grandmother is my aunt.”

“What's an aunt?” Harry had to hold in a snigger at Teddy’s question, because Draco had never looked so done.

“Well, my mother is your grandmother’s sister.” Draco tried to explain but Teddy just looked more confused. Draco huffed and rolled his eyes. “I'm your cousin, alright?”

Teddy nodded, but he didn't really look like he was paying attention. He had the look he always had when he was thinking about something. “You look like the woman in the photograph.” Harry was sure he was talking about the photo on the mantelpiece at Andromeda’s of her and her sisters.

Draco didn't say anything and looked behind him to glare at Harry. Harry smiled innocently, knowing he couldn’t listen from a distance any longer and sat down on the swing next to them. “Are you and Draco getting along well?” Harry asked Teddy and he nodded back.

“Cousin Draco!” He pointed at Draco and Harry couldn’t help but laugh. Teddy never did fail to brighten up Harry’s day, and even Draco was finding it hard not to smile when Teddy reached up to touch the tip of his nose again and speaking a quiet “Boop.”

Soon after that, Teddy jumped off of Draco’s lap to go play on the slide by himself. Harry and Draco stayed sat on the swings together as they watched him play by himself, no other children around as it was too cold and school time. Teddy had multiple warming charms on his jacket so he wouldn’t get cold, Andromeda’s warning charms being the best out there.

“Why didn’t you save me?” Draco asked as his feet pushed him off the ground gently so he was slightly swinging.

“Oh, come on. Teddy’s amazing.” Harry argued back and smiled when he looked at Teddy again. The boy had lost so much yet he was always so happy, so full of life. Harry admired him, even if Teddy didn’t truly understand what he had lost to its full extent.

“He’s a pest. All children are pests. And all Potters are gits.” Draco said as a matter of fact, his eyes not leaving Teddy though.

“I may be a git but you’re dating me so it must be appealing in some way.”

Draco rolled his eyes, finally looking away from Teddy to look at Harry instead. Harry didn’t really expect Draco to grab his collar and pull him in for a kiss, especially in front of Teddy who was now clapping and cheering. Harry felt his cheeks heat up, either because of the cold or that Draco was making him _blush_ , of all things.

Harry was now sure, if not already, that Draco was the biggest tease on the planet. He pulled away and smirked, turning to Teddy and yelling, “Come on, pest! I’ll chase you around the park.” Teddy laughed happily as he ran, Draco following in a mock slow run so he didn’t catch him up, and when they’d done one circuit of the park, Draco pulled Harry to chase Teddy with him.

“I told you.” Harry couldn’t help but say as Teddy giggled and ran through their legs.

“Shut it.” Draco shoved Harry lightly, which lead to Harry shoving back and before they knew it, they were both on the ground. “At least you didn’t break my arm this time.” Draco said up to him.

Harry smiled and pecked him on the lips before getting up as Teddy had waddled over, presumably to see what was happening.

“We should be getting you back to Nana.” Harry said, reluctantly but knew that Andy was planning something with some other magical children around Teddy’s age so he had to be back not too late. Teddy pouted and wriggled in Harry’s arms when he was picked up. Harry had never known the boy to complain about being picked up before.

“Cousin Draco!” He wailed, reaching out with grabby hands to Draco. Harry, without even asking if it was okay, handed Teddy to the blond, who looked severely disgusted as he held a crying toddler.

“Could you keep hold him while we apparate?” It would be easier for Draco to hold him in this state, but also, once Draco was on the doorstep, it’d be easier for Harry to convince him to see Andy.

Draco nodded yes, and Harry felt his plan slip into place as they checked the area for any muggles before apparating, Draco holding onto his arm as they went. However, as soon as they arrived, Harry’s plan slipped away as Draco passed Teddy back over.

“I’ll wait out here for you.”

“But-”

“No.” Draco snapped, stopping Harry from trying to convince him. _Bloody stubborn wanker._ Harry seemed to forgive Draco straight away as he removed a leaf from Harry’s messy hair and placed a kiss on his cheek before guiding him in the direction of the door.

“I won’t be long.” Harry promised and walked up the path to the front door, Andromeda letting him in just as he knocked. Harry thought he’d be able to keep up the pretence that it was just him and Teddy, but of course, as soon as he gave Teddy to Andy, he went off on a massive rant about meeting Cousin Draco and the tips of his hair changed from black to silver blond.

Andromeda raised her eyebrow at Harry and put Teddy down watching some muggle TV to talk to Harry. “You took Teddy to meet my nephew?”

“Yeah.” Harry admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

“Cousin Draco loves Harry!” Teddy added from the other room.

“Yes, thank you Teddy!” Harry replied, loud enough for Teddy to hear then turned back to Andromeda. He felt like a child who had just done something naughty and was about to get scolded for it.

“How is Draco?” Andromeda asked softly, like she’d pieced the puzzle together and knew Harry would know the answer because of how close they were.

“Good, I think.” Good being relative, though. “He’s stood outside, I think he’s scared to come in.”

“I’m not surprised. His side of the family wasn’t very nice to mine.” She told him, sighing and leaning against the doorframe. “Cissy contacted me a year ago apologising. We are quite close now.” Harry knew this as he occasionally saw the letters from Narcissa on the side, so he didn’t know why she was telling him this. “She told me she had an argument with Draco two years ago and he’s been ignoring her since.”

“What about?” Harry was letting his curiosity get the better of him, but he couldn’t help it. Whenever he thought he knew everything about Draco, there was another thing Draco hadn’t mentioned or was hiding.

“She was trying to help him and he went completely off the handle, that’s all she said.” Andromeda told him then went to see what Teddy was doing, as he had made a noise. “Tell him I say hello.” She said back just before she left the room.

Harry sighed and exited the house, walking up to Draco stood outside. “Andy says hi.”

“You told her I was here? Now she’s going to think I’m a coward, Potter, you-”

“She understands.” Harry interrupted what he was sure would have been a cleverly insult filled rant. Draco huffed and started to walk off, being stopped however when Harry grabbed his hand. “Why did you argue with your mum?”

Draco rolled his eyes, and looked ready to have another go at Harry but shut his mouth before any words came out. He looked away from Harry before attempting to speak again. “She told me I should get over Theo, that he was near enough dead and it was pointless pining.” Harry could see Narcissa’s argument, but there were softer approaches to getting that opinion across. If someone had told him to forget about his parents, or Sirius, or anyone else that died when he was particularly upset, Harry probably have told them to shut the fuck up. Knowing Draco, he probably went a step further than that.

“Come back to Hogwarts with me.” Harry practically ordered, wanting to spend the rest of the day with him. If he got back now, he’d have time to teach one more lesson and then spend the evening with Draco, this time eating dinner and leaving the sex to after that. Because the morning after Draco’s visit, he’d never eaten a bigger breakfast.

“I can’t.” Draco seemed genuinely disappointed. “I’ve got so much work to do. I’ve been taking too much time off.”

Harry nodded, disappointed too but understanding why. They both had jobs, and the one off skipping was okay but they couldn’t pretend they were jobless forever.

“I’ll come see you tomorrow morning, though.” Draco compromised, and Harry could deal with that if he didn’t start screaming about spiders again. They kissed goodbye before apparating back to what they were supposed to be doing.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (okay im pretty sure this plus the start of the next chapter is the last happy shit you're getting. i wish myself luck while writing the rest of this and you lot luck for when you read it)


	5. The Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologise for the wait, i decided at the last minute to rewrite this chapter, which is also why there may be some mistakes (i was in a rush) anyway, hope you enjoy!!!

* * *

 

Potter was a hopeless romantic. That much was sure now. Draco had never had someone so romantic in his life before, and it felt weird.

Draco promised to see Potter the next morning, and he wasn’t one to break his promises, but he had never expected to see _this_ when he walked into Potter’s room. A table had been set up with delicious smelling breakfast food laid out on it, along with a rose and some candles. Draco rolled his eyes at it all, because that was the only way he could cope with being treated like this.

“We didn’t get a proper dinner the other day, or yesterday, so I thought why not have a romantic breakfast instead.” Potter explained and gently took Draco’s coat off of him to hang up. He had even made an effort with his appearance. His hair was neater, it made a complete difference, but it didn’t seem right. Draco could also smell an expensive cologne, something he probably had a few years back. It was nice.

“Must you be so extra?” Draco asked, sounding like he was annoyed with it, but in truth, he was loving it.

“Always.” Potter replied and kissed him lightly on the lips before sitting down, Draco doing the same. “I hope you like it all, the house elves made it specially.”

Draco smiled at Potter then helped himself to some of the pancakes that had been made whilst Potter decided to put together an English breakfast. The contrast was evident between them as Potter chose savoury and Draco couldn't get enough of the sweet syrup on his pancakes.

“You'll rot your teeth.” Potter commented, earning himself the middle finger from Draco. It wouldn't hurt to eat sweet things once in awhile, Draco was allowed to treat himself. Although, he had sucked Potter off the other day and that was one of the best treats he'd ever had. And this romantic breakfast proved Potter was sweeter than his pancakes, he just wouldn't let him know that.

“How did the work go yesterday?” Potter asked before taking a bite of his sausage. Draco had to remind himself that he was not a child, and laughing at such things was immature.

“Good.” Draco replied and looked down at his pancakes so he wouldn’t laugh. Draco swore Potter was eating the sausage like that deliberately. “One of my suppliers is being difficult.” _As always._

“Suppliers? I thought all your books were from the Manor?”

Draco sighed and looked up to see Potter frowning at him. He might as well tell the truth now. “They were, but I started buying books to find a cure for Theo, and when I didn’t find anything I just sold the books.” He shrugged and shoved some of his pancakes into his mouth, so if Potter asked questions, he couldn’t reply.

Potter seemed understand though. “Do you trade books then? Buy them at a low price then sell higher to gain a profit?”

“Yes.” Draco said once he had finished his mouthful. He was pretty surprised that Potter knew how his business worked and seemingly glossed over Theo. If it was Pansy, she would have filled him with fake confidence that _he’d find something eventually._ But Potter was Potter, and he’d been through loses too. He knew what it felt like.

“Most of them are completely annoying and take ages to budge from their high prices.” Draco told him, continuing the harmless conversation.

“I suppose you use your wit and charm to persuade them.” Draco couldn’t help but notice subtle hints of sarcasm in Potter’s words.

“Actually, Luna is more useful for that.” Potter gave him a confused look. “Whenever she is there, she’ll go off about some mystical creature that is behind their stubbornness and eventually they lower their prices just to shut her up.”

Potter laughed a little. “What does Luna say about your stubbornness?”

“I am not stubborn!” Draco protested back, offended that Potter could suggest such a thing. Never in his life had he been _stubborn._

“You’re also a bad liar.”

Draco prided himself in being a good liar, always able to manipulate people into doing what he wanted. It was Potter’s fault that he was a bad liar around him. He always gets knocked off balance by the stupid git, and his stupid green eyes.

“I didn’t tell you about Luna, did I?” Potter gave Draco a blank look. “She’s dating your ex.”

Potter looked puzzled briefly, making Draco wonder how many exes Potter had, but moments later he could see it click on his face. “Luna and Ginny?” He sounded shocked. Honestly, Draco wasn’t surprised. The two were always close.

“Pansy told me, but I suspect they didn’t tell her, so maybe keep it hush hush for a while. That means don’t go telling Weasley about it.” Draco pointed his finger threateningly. Luna meant a lot to him and he didn’t want her new relationship getting controlled by other people. When they wanted to tell people, they would. He wasn’t in the wrong for telling Potter though, because it’s Potter.

“You can call him Ron, you know.”

Draco snorted. “Never.” He was barely calling Potter by his first name, so the line should really be drawn there. He severely doubted that he and Weasley would ever be friends, anyway.

“What about calling me Harry?” Potter leaned forward, resting his chin in the palm of his hand and eating a bit of bacon.

“Manners, Potter.” Draco flicked his wand and made Potter’s elbow move off of the table abruptly, Potter’s face almost hitting the table.

“Draco, we’ve fucked and we are dating. I think we are on a first name basis now.” All jokes were aside now. Potter looked deadly serious.

“I never even allowed you to call you by my first name. Only seven people have been given that privilege.” Draco said and leaned back in his chair, lightly wiping his mouth clean with a tissue. Potter raised his eyebrow, silently asking _who,_ so Draco continued. “Pansy, Blaise, Luna, Theo, Vince, Greg and now that Robbins boy.”

Potter frowned. “Not even your parents? Or Snape?”

“I said allowed. I never allowed them to call me by my first name, they did it anyway. Much like you.” Draco helped himself to a glass of pumpkin juice and doing his best to avoid looking at Potter.

“Don't you ever wish you were closer to people?”

Draco shook his head. “No. The people I have is enough. You may have a lot of friends but I don't need that.” He didn't mean for it to come across accusing or aggressive, but it did.

Potter stood up, and Draco could hear him walk over to him. For a moment, Draco thought they were going to argue. It was a familiar feeling, from all the times when they were younger.

But he was wrong. Potter didn’t yell. Instead, he sat on Draco’s lap, straddling him. “I know.” He said, cupping Draco’s face with his warm hands. “But just because you don’t let people in, doesn’t mean they’re not there for you. You’ve got me, Teddy, Andy as well. I think even Ron would stand up for you if he had to, Hermione too.”

“Must you always be so sentimental?” Draco asked, looking up into those emerald eyes as they rolled then closed, Potter leaning down to kiss him. Draco could stay like this forever, but some pest had knocked on the door, causing Potter to jump off of his lap quickly. Draco turned to see Robbins stood by the door, and now he wanted to take back the privilege of using his first name.

“Sorry.” Robbins was bright red, and quickly turned to leave, but Potter being Potter caught up with him.

“Oi.” Draco heard Potter say as they went through his office. Draco huffed and stood up to follow them.

“I didn’t know. I’m sorry Professor Potter, and… Draco.” He sounded cautious, and was still bright red. Draco dismissed the apology with a wave of his hand as he sat down in Potter’s desk, putting his feet up on it like he always does at the bookstore. It was a force of habit really.

“I’m glad to see you on your feet again.” Potter smiled as he pushed Draco’s feet off of the desk, not even breaking eye contact with Robbins as he did it. “And I’m sorry you had to see that. It was very unprofessional.”

“Oh, come on.” Draco scoffed and properly looked at Robbins, estimating his age and potential house in his head. “I give it a year until he’s doing worse.” Draco earned a whack on the head for that comment, despite it being _entirely true, thank you very much._

“Anyway, um, McGonagall wanted me to give you this.” Draco thought he was talking to Potter, but when he actually paid attention again, Robbins was looking directly at him and was holding out the latest Daily Prophet with a letter attached to it.

Draco cautiously took them from Robbins, not even knowing how McGonagall knew he was at Hogwarts, but then again, that woman was magnificent. He read the letter first.

_Draco,_

_This is never something I’d want you to know, but it’s best you do know now, rather than later._

_I would have spoken to you myself about this, but the Ministry required my presence right away, which is understandable._

_I want you to stay at Hogwarts for now, where I know you shall be safe, where you can’t do anything stupid._

_Minerva McGonagall._

Draco frowned at the note, not quite understanding it. Why would he do something stupid? But then, he understood perfectly well. His eyes flicked to the title of the Daily Prophet’s front page. Draco couldn’t quite pinpoint how he felt. It was a mixture of emotions; fear, upset, but mostly anger. Yes, he was angry.

_Mass Death Eater Breakout from Azkaban._

Draco read on, hoping, just hoping, he wouldn’t see his name. Anyone but him. _Please._ It seemed the whole world around him came crashing down in one instant. The paper in his hands burst into flames, Draco’s magic going wild. He heard something smash, perhaps a window, and then he was pulled to face someone. Draco was zoning out, he knew that, but he could see green eyes. Bright green eyes.

“Draco!” He heard someone yell and then he was shaken roughly, snapping him out of his trance.

“I have to go.” Draco said straight away. Potter was frowning at him, worry written all over his face.

“Why?” Potter asked but Draco couldn’t answer that. No, he couldn’t drag Potter into this, it was too dangerous. Draco knew there was only two ways out of this situation now, maybe three but he doubted the Aurors would get there before him. He should have known this thing with Potter would never last, considering his past, but he wanted to to last. He really did.

Draco pulled Potter into a hug, a tight hug too. He didn’t want to let go, but he had to. He only had a small window to act. It had to be perfect to gain the upper hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Draco?” Potter’s worried expression was now verging on sadness.

“Goodbye, Harry.” He quickly kissed Potter on the lips, he couldn’t have that lasting any longer than a second or he’d cry. He couldn’t cry in front of Potter. Before Potter could do anything to stop him, Draco stormed out of Hogwarts, not caring as he bumped into people on his way out.

Draco had to go home first, there was one thing he needed. He couldn’t do this without it.

The Hawthorn wand was where he’d left it, right at the back of his wardrobe in a dust covered box. He appreciated Potter giving it back to him, but really, the wand didn’t belong to Potter or Draco. Draco liked to think himself being the wands half owner, Theo being the other half, just like his current wand.

If he was going to do this, it had to be with the Hawthorn. As he swapped the wands around, the Hawthorn felt natural in his hand, like it wanted to be there, be with him.

Taking a deep breath, he turned the wand and the familiar sense of apparition surrounded him. The wards either weren’t up, or they wanted Draco there, as Draco apparated right on the doorstep. Even if it was the latter, he was ready to face them.

With the Hawthorn wand, he slowly opened the door. No traps, it seemed. Draco stepped into the house, a place he once regarded as a second home. That was a long time ago though. Now, this house resembled hell more than a home.

It was more dusty and darker than he remembered, but it was just as cold, that hadn’t changed. Draco remembered cuddling up with Theo by the fireplace in his bedroom without a care in the world.

Draco was letting himself get distracted by reminiscing. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t see the first spell coming. It knocked him off balance, but not enough to make him miss the second spell his way. He could see a silhouette at the top of the stairs firing spells at him, and knew the second he saw, it was _him._

“Face me like a man!” Draco yelled up at him and watched as the silhouette walked down the stairs before coming into the dim light provided by a window. Draco was right. In front of him was Nott Sr.

“I’ve been waiting for this day.” Nott grinned, his teeth rotten and dark eyes glistening. He had the same eyes as Theo, but Theo’s were always filled with kindness, Nott Sr’s always looked demonic in a way.

“As have I.” Draco replied, but he wasn’t grinning like Nott. He was here for one thing; vengeance.

The spells threw everywhere, both casting lethally. Draco could feel his anger bubble inside of him, only making his magic stronger and darker. Neither of them had the upper hand, so it was a matter of luck now.

Draco was too riled up to notice, and when he did notice, it was too late. Nott was laughing more than usual, and a floorboard creaked behind Draco. He span round to protect himself, but it was all too late. There was a blinding magical light, and then everything went dark as Draco lost consciousness, this last thought not being about Theo, but Harry.

* * *

 

Harry wanted to run after Draco, despite his shook from Draco using his first name, but before he could even get to the door, an owl flew into the room and dropped a letter.

Robbins kindly picked it up and handed it to Harry. “Shall I get you another Daily Prophet?” He asked, motioning to the first copy burnt to a crisp on the floor.

“That would be very kind, thank you.” Robbins left the room, leaving Harry alone to read the very brief letter.

_The Ministry requires your assistance._

_Kingsley Shacklebolt._

It must be serious if Kingsley is turning to him over Williamson, but he didn't know how serious until he had read the front page of the Daily Prophet. Azkaban prison breakout. The names of the escaped; Rookwood, Jugson, Rowle, Selwyn and Nott. Harry's eyes widened. Nott Sr, Theo's dad. Was that why Draco acted the way he did?

“Sir?”

Harry looked down at Robbins, realising that he had been standing in silence when really, he should be doing something, anything, to help.

“Come on, let’s go to the Great Hall.” Harry said, knowing the majority of people would be in there, panicking. And Harry was right. When they entered the Great Hall, everyone was reading the Daily Prophet and there were many theories going around the room, most including Voldemort.

Harry sighed and walked up to the staff table, standing before the school as he amplified his voice to say, “Quiet!” It worked, as the room drew to silence and everyone was staring up at Harry. “There is no need to panic. The best people are working on this.” That was unlikely if it was Williamson, but they needn't know that. “Panicking is what they want, so don’t give into them or feed whatever they are doing. I can assure you, they will be caught.” That was all Harry said, because he really did need to get to the Ministry, so he turned to Professor Sprout, who automatically took over from Harry.

Five minutes later, Harry had flooed to the Ministry and had walked in on what seemed to be a very important meeting between Shacklebolt, Williamson and McGonagall.

“Sorry.” He mumbled, and went to walk back out of the room.

“No, Harry, you’re right on time.” Shacklebolt told him and instead of Harry leaving the room, McGonagall did. Before she went, however, she pulled Harry to the side.

“Is Draco at Hogwarts?”

“He was, but he left as soon as he saw the Prophet.” Harry tried to not remember the fact that Draco had called him _Harry,_ as whenever he did he got even more worried about his boyfriend. McGonagall didn’t help either, as her face was full of worry as she left the room.

Harry didn’t have time to worry, though, as he needed to get these death eaters caught.

“We believe that this was orchestrated by the same person behind the Hogsmeade attacks.” Williamson informed Harry, who had to use all his willpower to not say _I told you so._

“Harry, we need possible hiding places, possible next moves, anything that can help.” Shacklebolt was practically begging, but Harry really wasn’t the best person for this job. They needed someone who knew the Death Eaters better than anyone, but that person had run off and was Merlin knows where.

“They wouldn’t go back to the Malfoy Manor, that’s for sure.” With the risk of Draco being there, the risk of being far too obvious, and the risk of whatever wards Draco and his parents set up after the war, no, they wouldn’t go there.

“What about the Malfoy’s house in France?” Williamson asked, indicating to Harry that the Malfoys were suspects.

“Yet again, no. The Malfoy’s are traitors to them.” All three of them avoided Azkaban for changing sides, so unless they were there for vengeance, they wouldn’t go there.

“What about the houses of the escaped?”

“On it.” Williamson said before quickly rushing out of the room, presumably to get Harry the information on the houses.

“Didn’t take you too long to get back into the swing of it.” Shacklebolt commented, and Harry could see exactly what was coming. “Are you sure being an Auror isn’t for you?”

“I like working at Hogwarts.” Being an Auror meant constantly worrying about the next threat, and Harry was done with those days. He would still help on occasions like this where it was practically impossible for him to not help, but that was it.

Williamson had returned and passed Harry a piece of parchment with the information on the houses. Rookwood; house under quarantine by the Ministry ever since he was first arrested. Jugson; small house in the middle of nowhere, now owned by a muggle farmer. Rowle; house also under quarantine since his arrest. Selwyn; house had burnt down by the hands of reckless muggle teenagers. Nott; house abandoned since Nott imprisoned, now belongs to his son, Theodore Nott, and Draco Malfoy.

Harry had to read over the last sentence again. Draco owned the Nott Manor along with Theo. Harry wished Draco would tell him more.

“Unless there’s a traitor within the Ministry, there are two options. One, they’ve gone to Jugson’s house and killed the muggle living there or two, they’ve gone to the Nott Manor.” It didn’t take a genius to work that out. “They may not be at either place, though.” In all honesty, they could be anyway, and not even together.

“But it’s a good place to start.” Shacklebolt added.

“I’ll go to the Nott Manor.” Williamson offered and Harry could easily see why. Draco was already a suspect, and now he co-owned one of the potential hideouts.

“I’ll come too.” Harry just wasn’t going to stand by and let Draco get framed.

“It would help if Mr Malfoy came forward, as he could use the Dark Mark to track the suspects.” Shacklebolt didn’t sound as accusing as Williamson. Harry appreciated that. “Do you know where Mr Malfoy is?”

“No.” Harry couldn’t exactly why, but as far as they were concerned, he wasn’t that close to Draco, unless everyone knew about him dating Draco and just weren’t saying anything.

Williamson gave Shacklebolt an _I told you_ look, which Harry had to do his best to ignore and not start an argument. Draco had nothing to do with any of this, he’d just run off, that was all.

Harry stood back as Williamson got a group together and took charge, giving them instructions. It was pointless for Harry to listen, because as soon as he got there he was going to search the entire place top to bottom for anything to do with Draco, and he’d brought his invisibility cloak with him just in case the escaped prisoners really were there.

The group apparated to the Nott Manor together, and Harry volunteered to be the first to approach the house. He could feel the wards as he walked up the path, but as the magic surrounded him, it seemed to relax and let Harry in. Harry frowned, not understanding why it had done that, especially if Death Eaters had been here recently. So, maybe they hadn’t been here recently, and Harry would have believed that if he hadn’t seen the state of the entrance hall.

There had been dueling here, and it was pretty recent, the magic was still lingering, and it felt familiar. He could see where spells had hit the walls and right in the middle of the hall was a scorch mark on the old wooden floor. The house was deathly silent though, almost too silent.

Harry suddenly heard a creak in the floorboards upstairs, and quickly draped his invisibility cloak over himself before going upstairs towards the sound as quietly as he could. As he got closer, he could hear muffled talking and raised his wand higher, ready to reveal himself and duel if he needed to.

“The Aurors are here.” He could hear a woman say, and wondered if it was the same woman from the Hogsmeade attack. “What do we do with him?”

“Leave him.” A man replied back. “He’ll come looking for us again, that’s if he survives.”

Harry then heard two distinctive cracks of apparition, signalling to him that they had gone. “Fuck.” He muttered, angry that he hadn’t stormed in earlier. He swung the door open and instantly, felt his heart drop and whole body fill with worry and more anger. Lying on the floor was Draco, unconscious and bleeding heavily from his side.

Harry removed the cloak and ran over to Draco’s side, hand going to his wrist to check for a pulse. There was one, but it was incredibly weak. “Draco?” Harry gently cupped Draco’s face, feeling how cold it was and noticing how pale he looked. Harry could feel himself panicking, he wasn’t going to lose Draco too. He’d lost too many people already.

Harry quickly cast a Patronus Charm, telling the silver stag to get help from the Aurors outside before scooping Draco into his lap, one hand putting pressure on the bleeding wound on his side and the other holding his hand.

“You’re strong Draco, please don’t leave me.” Harry was shaking, so scared that Draco could die in his arms. He didn’t understand why Draco was here, or why this had happened, but it would be fine, because Draco would explain when he was okay. He was going to pull through, he had to.

“Potter?” He heard Williamson call just before he swung the door open, his eyes widening at what he saw. “Spinnet! Get in here!” Seconds later, Alicia had joined them in the room and crouched by Harry’s side.

“Let’s heal this a bit then get him to St Mungo’s, yeah?” Alicia said comfortingly, her hand on Harry’s shoulder as she put numerous healing charms on Draco’s side. Harry watched, biting his lip hard. The wound looked deep, making Harry worry about how bad it was. “He’ll be fine.” Alicia reassured him, somehow knowing that he was worried. “We’re going to have to Apparate him.”

“I’ll do it.” Harry offered straight away and followed Alicia’s instructions directly, picking Draco up as gently as he could, trying to keep it together as he could feel how cold Draco was. He should have never let him leave Hogwarts.

The Healers must have been notified that they were coming, because as soon as the three of them apparated to St Mungo’s, they took Draco out of Harry’s arms and rushed him off to the emergency rooms.

Harry ended up sitting in the same seat as before when he was waiting for Robbins, he was worried before but this time he was the most worried he’s ever been. Alicia sat down next to him, putting her hand back on Harry’s shoulder supportively.

“The healers here are amazing.” Alicia said calmly. Harry didn’t even remember _how_ to be calm like that.

“When did you become an Auror?” Harry asked quietly, feeling like he needed to distract himself from the situation he was currently in, and it seemed Alicia had guessed this.

“I’m a Medi-Auror, I’ve had both Auror and Healer training. It just seemed the right thing for me.” She explained with a nod. “I always have Quidditch as my back up, though.” Harry initially considered playing Seeker for one of the British teams but quickly decided against it when he remembered the fame that came with it. He wanted a quiet life away from the media, and as much as he loved Quidditch, there was too much fame with it.

Harry nodded, but didn’t know what to say back. He could have spoken about Quidditch but Quidditch reminded him of Draco, they way they’d both compete to be the best, Harry always winning. It lead him to think about playing with Draco again, if he’d even be able to.

“Harry.” He slowly looked back at Alicia, biting his lip in habit and his leg bobbing up and down from stress. “Are you and Malfoy-” She didn’t even finish her question before Harry nodded and finally felt himself break down, tears streaming down his face. Alicia pulled him into a hug and held him tight, providing a shoulder to cry on. Harry was thankful for that, and was sure to thank her properly if not now, but later.

Someone clearing their throat was what made the hug end, Harry pulling away to quickly wipe his cheeks clean from tears.

“Hello again.” The healer from before smiled, the one that had checked on Theo while Harry was there. “Mr Malfoy is asking for you.”

Harry’s eyes grew wide. “He’s okay?” He briefly glanced at Alicia, who had an _I told you so_ look showing through her smile.

“Yes, his wound is all healed and he’s been given some Blood-Replenishing potion. He’s a bit out of it and keeps mumbling about you.” The healer told him, leaving him speechless for a moment. Draco was fine, and was mumbling about _Harry._

“Can I see him?” Harry asked eagerly, of which he got a nod from the Healer in return.

“I should report back to Williamson.” Alicia said as both her and Harry stood up.

“Thank you.” Harry said genuinely before she walked away. Then, Harry was lead to one of the private rooms. He couldn’t help wringing his hands as he walked, because despite what the Healer had said, what if Draco wasn’t fine.

Harry took a big breath before walking into the room to see Draco sat up in bed, still pale but with much more colour than earlier and his grey eyes instantly focusing on Harry.

“Potter, there you are- dear Merlin, you’re covered in blood, we simply can’t have that.” Harry had no idea why he’d been told Draco was out of it, because from as far as he could tell, this was quite the opposite of ‘out of it’. Draco was beckoning Harry closer, and of course, Harry did as he was told.

“Mr Malfoy, you shouldn’t be using your wand.” The Healer warned but earned themselves the middle finger as Draco pointed his wand at the bloodstains on Harry’s shirt. Instead of using a spell, he just waved his wand around haphazardly, frowning when nothing happened.

The healer sighed and waved her own wand, cleaning Harry’s shirt without much effort. Harry mouthed thank you to her as she left the room. Harry could see now why they said ‘out of it’, because of _this_.

“There we go, Potter’s all clean.” Draco patted Harry’s chest with his hand, it was gentle and weak, but at least he was okay. Harry felt his emotions overwhelm him and suddenly kissed Draco, who didn’t really kiss back and was instead looking around the room confused. Harry rolled his eyes and instead went for hugging Draco, his hand gripping the hair at the nape of Draco’s neck.

“Potter?” Harry could feel Draco’s breath on his neck, but didn’t want to let go, scared that if he did, he’d lose him. “Potter!” Draco’s raised voice made Harry jump back on instinct. “If you’re going to hug me, do it properly.”

Harry frowned, not understanding what Draco was implying until he shuffled slightly to the right, making room for Harry on the bed. Harry, of course, joined Draco in the bed and didn’t have to do anything for the blond to rest his head on Harry’s chest, closing his eyes. Harry guessed that the medication had probably made him tired and let him rest, gently playing with his hair as his only source of entertainment.

Draco was actually getting some rest until Williamson stormed into the room, slamming the door loudly and jolting Draco awake, who looked extremely confused.

“Mr Malfoy, we need to ask you some questions.” Williamson said, another Auror that Harry didn’t know joining them in the room, sheepishly closing the door.

“Can’t this wait?” Harry said back, his annoyance showing in this voice. How was Draco supposed to recover properly if he wasn’t allowed to rest.

“It cannot wait, Mr Malfoy is our main suspect.”

“Oh, yes.” Draco said as he sat up, Harry mentally preparing himself for what he was about to say. “Because when people work together, stabbing the other, _twice_ , is definitely a way of showing respect and teamwork. I wonder how no one has taken that approach with you yet.” Draco smirked at the end, clearly satisfied with the way Williamson looked so offended and how the other Auror seemed to be hiding a snigger.

Harry didn’t know what to think, because one, Draco had just said that he’d been stabbed twice, and two, he couldn’t believe Draco could be so sarcastic to the Head Auror when he’s under suspicion for working with high security Death Eaters, but then again, this was Draco.

“Mr Malfoy, we have evidence that you and Nott Sr attacked an innocent person at the Nott Manor.” Williamson questioned, and Harry was so close to starting a massive argument about how they were accusing Draco so easily.

“You found magical signatures? That’s not going to prove who was fighting who, and I have the evidence to show that I was the one attacked.” Draco replied, moving closer into Harry’s arms as he pointed at his right side.

“Maybe the victim fought back?”

“I am the victim!” Draco snapped, causing Harry to subtly squeeze Draco’s hand, telling him to calm down. This is what Williamson wanted.

“I can provide evidence, as well. I heard Nott and a woman, presumably the owner of the other magical signature you found, discussing the fact the Aurors were there and whether to leave Draco or not.” Harry added and noticed how Draco smiled at him, almost like he was saying thank you. Harry was telling the truth though, and if he hadn’t heard that, he probably would have made something up to clear Draco’s name. He knew for a fact that Draco was not behind this.

“Well, Mr Malfoy, if you are so innocent, you will have no objections to helping us search for the escaped Death Eaters.” Williamson motioned to the other Auror in the room, and Harry didn’t understand what was happening as the Auror walked to Draco’s side of the bed and handed him a vial of potion.

“You’re mad.” Draco was glaring at the Auror next to him and batted his hand holding the vial away.

“What does he want you to do?” Harry asked to Draco only, so lowered his voice. Williamson probably could still hear, but he’d made it clear his question was directed at Draco, not Williamson.

“He wants me to use my dark mark to track them down.” Draco replied at the equally quiet level.

“No.” Harry said firmly. Yes, he’d allow it if Draco was at his full strength, but he was in St Mungo’s for Merlin’s sake, it was madness to make Draco go through such a thing when he was injured. “He’s not doing it.”

“Mr Potter, I’m worried that you may be acting under the Imperius-”

“Fine!” Draco gave in, snatching the vial from the Auror and downing it before Harry could tell him not to. The potion seemed to work immediately, Draco screaming out in pain and gripping his left forearm.

The Auror took over and grabbed Draco’s arm for him, rolling up the sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark getting clearer and darker. “Mr Potter, hold his arm for me.” Harry did as he was told, using one hand to support Draco’s arm and the other to hold his hand, which was a mistake because Draco could really grab tightly.

Williamson was watching from the other side of the room as the Auror pressed their wand to Draco’s arm, muttering a number of charms. The Dark Marks had a specific magical signature, which also reflected on the person’s signature, but it meant that it was easy to trace once the Ministry had registered all known Death Eaters. The downside was that they needed a Dark Mark to do it, and there was a level of trust for that person to tell the true location. Harry suspected that they may have illegally added Veritaserum to the potion used.

“Jugson and Rowle, Jugson’s house.” Draco panted out in between his piercing screams of pain. Harry hated that there was nothing to do to help him as the Dark Mark somehow managed to get even darker. It looked pure evil against Draco’s pale skin. “Rookwood is at the Lestrange property, Selwyn too.”

“And Nott? Where’s Nott?” Williamson pressed, earning himself a glare from Harry and the Auror. Harry really had to learn their name, because despite working for Williamson, he seemed to be alright.

Draco was shaking his head and gripped Harry’s hand even tighter. The skin around the Dark Mark was now going red. It was going too far.

“Stop!” Harry ordered, and the Auror did as he was told, running the counter-charm. The room turned silent as Draco stopped screaming and slumped himself against Harry as Williamson glared at the Auror.

“You didn’t find out where Nott was.”

“He’s too weak.” The Auror bit back, earning even more respect from Harry. “Once we take in the other four, they can do the search for Nott.”

Williamson didn’t seem too happy about it, but there wasn’t much else he could do so he left the room with the Auror, leaving Harry and Draco alone again.

“I’m glad he’s fucked off.” Draco murmured into Harry’s chest, holding onto Harry tightly. Harry gently brushed the hair off of Draco’s forehead, which was sweaty and hot. “I’m never doing that again.”

“I’m going to talk to Shacklebolt about that, it wasn’t right how they pushed you into it.”

“Like they’d care what happens to a Death Eater.” Draco muttered bitterly before suddenly swinging his legs off of the bed.

“What are you doing?” Harry questioned, frowning. Was Draco really mad enough to get out of bed after an injury _and_ what he’d just endured?

“People to go, places to see.” Draco replied, waving it off with his hand as he stood up. “Wait. Other way around.” He said before grabbing onto the wall, nearly falling over.

Harry quickly rushed over to him, offering him someone to lean on. “You need to get back into bed.”

“No, I need to go protect Theo.” Draco argued back, the stubborn git.

“I’m sure the Aurors are protecting him.” Harry reassured him, trying to lead him back into bed but he would not let go of the windowsill.

“Do you think they’re capable of such a thing after what just happened?”

Harry had to admit, Draco had a point. It wasn’t so much the Aurors being bad, as Alicia and even the one earlier were fine, it was more the people who commanded them, the people like Williamson.

“Okay, but if at any point you feel bad, we are coming straight back.” Harry noticed Draco rolling his eyes as he grabbed his wand and his clothes, before looking at Harry pointedly. Harry was now the one to roll his eyes as he had to turn his back on Draco as he got changed from his hospital gown, even though he’d seen him naked multiple times.

“Come on, Potter.”

“Go back to calling me Harry. You called me Harry earlier.” He pointed out as he opened the door for Draco, his arm around Draco’s torso for support.

Draco remained silent as they walked to Theo’s room, Harry thought that maybe Draco didn’t want to call him Harry again and went into his usual overthinking and overanalyzing mode. Maybe he should go back to calling him Malfoy.

When they reached Theo’s room, Draco was out of breath as he sat in the seat next to the bed. “Harry, be useful for Merlin’s sake.”

Harry perked up at the use of his first name, feeling a smile creep onto his face as Draco wouldn’t even look at him. “Useful how?”

“We need to move Theo to the Malfoy Manor. Chop, chop.” Something inside Harry told him that Draco loved to boss people around, and he’d be lying if he said he wouldn’t use that in the future.

“And how do you suppose that’ll work with Healers and Aurors everywhere?” The only way to get Theo out safely was the floos, and it’d look a bit suspicious if they walked out with a patient under intensive care. “Is it even safe to take him out of here?”

“I have that little countercurse journal if anything gets bad, I believe there’s a page on spells to use to maintain an unconscious person.” Draco told him, taking the little book out of his pocket proudly. “I’m glad you gave it back.”

“So am I.” Harry nodded, then looked down at Theo. “I have an idea how to get him out.” He carefully levitated Theo before putting his invisibility cloak over him. Draco smiled proudly, which was something Harry never knew he needed until now.

It took them a lot of careful maneuvering to get Theo from the room to the floo, and a few almost disasters, but they’d managed to get Theo to the Malfoy Manor and onto a bed. Harry didn’t like the place, and it was worse than before as it hadn’t been lived in for three years, but he took Draco’s word that it defendable, only his parents, Pansy and Blaise being the other people able to pass through the wards.

“Are you sure Lucius wouldn’t help them?”

Draco shook his head. “Mother would kill him.” He finished tucking Theo into the bed and sighed. “I’ll see you in a bit.” And with that, quickly walked out of the room. Harry took longer than he would have liked to react, and when he followed Draco into the corridor, Draco was already gone.

* * *

Draco loved this balcony, it was his favourite place in the Manor, where he could look over the entire grounds. When he was little, he used to come here to watch the peacocks roam the grounds, and then during the war he’d come here to calm himself and centre himself after a long day under Voldemort's power.

Draco had forgotten how much being here made him forget about everything else. It made him feel small against the large grounds of the Manor, and the sky looming above him. Currently, the sun was setting so the whole sky had an orange glow, and there was a chill in the air that would be expected in December, but there was so much more behind it. It was like impending doom.

Sighing, Draco went over to the stone fence around the balcony and sat on it like he always used to, his legs swinging down. It was high up, so dangerous for him to be sat like this, but that was always the thrill of it. When Draco thought about it, he’d like his death to be mundane like falling from a balcony instead of some hellbent psychopath murdering him.

“Draco?”

He looked over his shoulder to see Harry standing by the door, his eyes looking at the view and his mouth in an _‘o’_ shape. Draco wondered how long it took Harry to find him.

“Come sit.” Draco patted the spot next to him on the balcony fence and returned to watching the sunset as Harry cautiously sat down next to him, clearly more worried of falling than Draco.

“The sunset is beautiful.” Harry sounded in awe, which perfectly reflected how Draco felt when he first found this place, his mother finding him hours later out of her mind with worry.

Draco looked at Harry, the orange light from the sun making him glow beautifully. It made Draco wonder if it was even possible for anyone to be this handsome.

“It never seems to stop. It’s just one problem after another.” Draco finally said what Harry probably wanted to hear, so now he could be _fixed_ like Harry wanted to do with everyone.

“I know how you feel.” And he did, he had to live with Voldemort trying to kill him for all his teenage years. “But it gets better.” Harry promised, slinging his arm around Draco’s shoulders and pulling him close. Draco could hear Harry’s heartbeat as he rested against him, and he kind of liked it.

“I never told you everything.” Draco sighed. It was time he was honest. “It was just after you’d left the Manor. Theo gave me his wand because he was worried that I wouldn’t be able to protect myself, but he needed one too so we said that it would be both of ours, and if I got the Hawthorn back, we’d share that too.”

“You don’t need to tell me.” Harry interrupted, and Draco understood where he was coming from but he _needed_ to tell Harry.

“Theo’s father stormed in. He wasn’t happy, at all, took Theo's wand which is why I had my mother's. You know that scar on my right hip? He did that, and he did it again today to finish me off.” Draco sighed and looked down at the gardens. “Theo wasn’t so lucky.”

“It wasn’t your fault, though.” Harry probably felt obliged to say it, and Draco knew it was the truth now, but in the past he didn’t. “You own Nott Manor, you know, you and Theo.”

“I do?” Draco asked and Harry nodded to confirm what he had said. “Oh.” Draco decided to change the subject and pointed over to the clearing in the gardens. “I used to play Quidditch over there.”

“I want to play Quidditch with you again.” Harry told him, his hand gently rubbing Draco’s arm supportively.

“Maybe I’ll have the Manor rebuilt, use the money from selling the Nott Manor, and I’ll build a massive Quidditch pitch and a massive library. You could even invite Granger.”

“Really? You’d let Hermione come over?”

“And Weasley if you insist.” Draco replied with a shrug, acting like it was nothing when he knew that to Harry, this was his family.

Harry cupped Draco’s face and kissed him so lovingly, his way of appreciating what Draco had said. Draco could easily feel himself falling in love with Harry, and he hadn’t felt love since Theo. People always told him he’d be able to move on, but he never believed it until now.

The crack of apparition made them both jump, Draco pulling Harry backwards so he didn’t fall off of the ledge.

“Let’s go see our visitor, then.” Draco said as confidently as he could, swinging his legs back over to the balcony, waiting for Harry to do the same before returning back into the Manor. If he guessed, he’d say the apparition crack came from the entrance hall, so that’s where they checked first.

* * *

Harry followed Draco through the Manor and towards the stairs leading down to the entrance hall. As they both looked over the balcony down to the hall, they saw three people. Nott Sr, Pansy and a woman holding a knife to her throat.

“Pansy!” Draco screamed, and went to run down the stairs towards her. Harry noticed the way the woman’s knife dug slightly further into Pansy’s throat as Draco did this, so quickly pulled him back. The woman reminded him of Bellatrix Lestrange a bit, the way she smiled so evilly and seemed like she wanted to dig that knife right into Pansy’s throat. She even had the same sunken eyes and black hair.

“Drop your wands.” Nott ordered, motioning at Pansy then his own wand aimed at the two of them. Draco didn’t drop his wand though, instead pointing it straight at Nott.

“Come up here and say that.” Draco threatened, his knuckles white from how tight he was holding his wand.

Harry took his wand out of his pocket as a precaution, but kept it by his side. He could see the way the woman eye's were filled with more excitement and put his hand on Draco’s arm, lowering it.

“Your boyfriend is smart.” The woman cackled, one hand yanking at Pansy’s hair. “This one and her friend tried to be smart, but look how well that turned out?” She grinned at Pansy and stroked her face with the knife. “But Draco, you’re much more fun, wouldn’t you say? We’ve had sex multiple times, after all.”

“What?” Harry looked at Draco, completely shocked. Why would he? He wouldn’t…

“He didn’t know, I was using polyjuice potion, but it was so fun to learn his tastes. He always went for men who looked like you, Potter.” Pansy looked purely disgusted at what the woman was admitting, and Draco looked like he was going to be sick. Harry didn’t blame him. If he’d found out that his one night stands were really all the same psychotic woman, his stomach wouldn’t be doing too well either.

“That wasn’t all. I messed with his mind too. It was just so easy to slip a simple Hallucination-causing potion into his alcohol, since he was so reliant on it.” She was grinning and so was Nott, both clearly proud of their work. Harry could see why Draco hated the man, not only for what he’d done to Theo, but he was an outright psychopath.

“You bitch!” Pansy yelled loudly and elbowed the woman hard. It all happened so quickly. One moment Pansy was stood in front of the woman, and the next, she was a fair distance away from her, a small cut on her hand from her getaway. “You absolute bitch!” Now Pansy had her wand, but Harry couldn’t understand where she’d got it from. It didn’t matter, though, because she was now dueling with the woman and Nott was fast approaching up the stairs.

“Stupefy!” Draco yelled loudly, Nott easily shielding himself as he approached.

“Crucio!” Nott screamed in return, but both Harry and Draco missed the curse coming their way, Harry moving towards the stairs where Nott was seconds before and Draco moving the other way, where Nott was going.

“Potter!” Harry looked towards where he’d been called, Blaise standing with his invisibility cloak and looking extremely worried. Pansy was dueling with the woman and Draco was dueling with Nott, so Harry was the only one that could help.

Harry ran down the stairs towards Blaise, who took him to the room next door where Theo lay on the floor, having some sort of seizure.

“Shit.” Harry could see why Blaise was panicking. Harry closed his eyes, trying to think what to do. Draco had said something about the countercurse journal and how to monitor unconscious people. There was probably something for seizures in there too. “I’ll be back.” Harry told Blaise before running back into the entrance hall. Draco was stood by the balcony edge dueling with Nott, and it looked like he was winning, at least that was what Harry hoped. “Draco! Countercurse journal now!” Harry yelled up and as soon as Draco dropped it down, he ran back to where Blaise and Theo were, his shield charms on full.

“Well?”

Harry ignored Blaise as he knelt by Theo’s side, frantically flicking through the book until he found the correct page, casting all the acceptable charms until the seizure stopped. They both sighed with relief.

“We should get him back to St Mungo’s just in case.” Blaise said, and Harry nodded in agreement, casting a Patronus to go to the Ministry, asking for assistance and Healers.

“Nice trick with the cloak, by the way.” Harry commented. It really was rather smart to steal it from where Harry left it and use it to give Pansy her wand back. Harry suspected he probably helped her escape from the woman’s arms too.

There was a loud bang from the entrance hall, followed by Pansy screeching “Draco!” at the top of her voice. Blaise and Harry automatically ran back into the room, discovering the loud bang was the sound of the woman’s body hitting the floor with Stupefy, but the real issue at hand was Draco and Nott both holding the same wand at the top of the stairs, fighting for the wand. None of them could help, as the two were so close that they could hit the wrong person.

“Avada Kedavra!” There was a flash of green light and both men started toppling down the stairs. Harry watched as they fell, praying to himself that the killing curse hadn’t hit Draco. He set up a cushioning charm for the bottom of the stairs, because if Draco hadn’t been hit, he wouldn’t want him to hurt himself.

The two men hit the floor with a thud, Pansy, Blaise and Harry all standing with their wands pointing at them, praying silently that Draco was okay. Neither of them were moving. Harry bit his lip and found that he couldn’t watch, so shut his eyes.

“Ow.” Harry’s eyes shot back open at the sound of Draco’s voice and rushed over to help him up. “Did I scare you? Twice in one day.” Harry rolled his eyes but hugged Draco tightly. Merlin, if Draco could stop getting himself in near-death situations, that would be great.

“Nott’s dead.” Blaise spoke quietly, motioning to the dead man on the floor. “The Aurors will be here any minute.”

“I cast it.” Draco said quietly, looking down at Nott’s body.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was an almost inaudible voice from the other side of the room. “What’s going on?”

All eyes snapped over to where Theo was stood, looking extremely confused as he surveyed the scene in front of him. “Is that my father?” He pointed at the dead body at the bottom of the stairs.

Draco let go of Harry and ran over to Theo, now hugging him instead. Harry felt like he was intruding, because Theo was back. The curses on him must have dropped when Draco killed Nott, and now he had Theo again.

There was a recognisable crack outside the house. That must of been the Aurors responding to Harry’s Patronus. He looked at everyone in the room, then at Nott. This situation really couldn’t get any better.

“Draco, leave!” Pansy instructed, pushing her wand into Draco’s hand. Draco didn’t even look at Harry before he apparated away, _with_ Theo. Harry felt his heart break into a million pieces, but what did he expect. Of course Draco would choose Theo. “Potter, take this!” Harry felt a wand get thrusted into his hand, and his wand get taken away, but his mind wasn’t focusing on anything as the Aurors marched in. Harry was too busy thinking about Draco, a tear rolling down his cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only the epilogue kind of chapter to go!!! will i give them a happy ending? who knows (well i do, but telling would be cheating)


	6. New Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please read the notes at the end!! concerns new story etc.

* * *

Harry took the blame for Nott’s death. He would have done anyway, even without Pansy screaming at him to take Draco’s wand, because Harry knew the system. They wouldn’t press charges on Harry, as who could blame the chosen one protecting himself. On the other hand, if an ex death eater killed someone, the Wizengamot wouldn’t be as lenient. Harry hated the injustice, and hated having to play the system, but it was anything to protect Draco.

The Aurors didn’t bother to check who actually cast the killing curse, and took Harry’s word for it, because who would question the boy who lived. Harry could have told them anything and they probably would have believed him, except when it came to being prejudiced, that would never change.

The woman, who had been revealed as Nott’s mistress, was currently locked up in Azkaban, and Harry hoped she’d stay there. There was talk about her going to St Mungo’s because of her pure insanity but everyone decided against it, not caring if she rotted in Azkaban. The things she had done were disgusting, and Harry couldn’t even comfort Draco.

Harry hadn’t seen Draco since he’d apparated away with Theo at the Manor. He spent some time thinking he was going to come back now that he was in the clear, but Harry learned better after a few days. Draco was with Theo now, and they probably had a lot to catch up on. Harry was sad, yes, but he had to get his head around it. Draco had chosen Theo, he always would choose Theo.

Christmas was probably the busiest yet, and New Year's Eve was going to be worse. Somehow, Harry had become closer to Pansy and Blaise, and somehow, he ended up inviting them to the New Year’s celebrations at the Burrow. He was surprised when they said yes.

Then there was everyone else that had been invited. Harry had also invited McGonagall,  Hermione’s parents were coming over. Ginny invited Luna and Xenophilius, as on Christmas Day of all days, she had blurted out that she was dating Luna, Harry doing his best surprised face when she said it. Andromeda was bringing Teddy over, and there was talk that Narcissa was coming too. Needless to say, Mrs Weasley was running out manically all day to get everything ready.

“Mum, it’s no big deal.”

“No big deal?!” Mrs Weasley looked like she was about to explode. “Ronald Weasley, do you realise how many people are coming over?! It has to be perfect!” And off she went again, tidying the house and preparing all sorts of food to accommodate everyone. Harry was surprised Ron hadn’t secretly eaten any, but then again, it was smart to not cross Mrs Weasley.

“I think she’s worked out what Ron’s planning.” Ginny added as they watched Mrs Weasley rush around in the kitchen making a massive cake.

“You don’t think Hermione knows?” Ron asked back and both Ginny and Harry shook their heads. They’d both been helping Ron towards this day, they day Ron was going to propose to Hermione.

The first people to arrive where Hermione and her parents, who had driven there. It gave Mrs Weasley a distraction, because now she had to make sure all guests were greeted well.

Hermione went straight over to Ron, and as expected, they kissed each other hello. Then, Hermione slung her arm around Harry, hugging him tightly. Ron, if he hadn’t looked nervous before, now looked like at any moment, he’d fall apart.

“How are you doing?” She asked Harry. She didn’t even have to say Draco’s name for Harry to know it was about him.

“Fine.” Harry lied, because he really wasn’t fine, but if he said he was fine enough times, maybe he would be.

“He’ll be back.” Hermione said it like she could read the future she sounded that certain. Harry didn’t believe it though.

Luna and Xenophilius turned up next, and Ginny couldn’t have looked happier. Harry felt like wherever he turned, he’d have a happy couple thrusted towards him and it was slowly sending him mad. He was so tempted to grab a bottle of Firewhiskey and sit outside downing it, but he’d put on a brave face, front it out like a Gryffindor.

Soon enough, the Burrow was filled with people. Harry stood leaning on the wall on his own, people watching with a now nearly empty bottle of firewhiskey. Teddy was running around happily, weaving between people's legs and changing his hair colour every time he saw a new person. Andromeda was sat with Narcissa and Hermione’s mum, all three with a glass of wine in hand and making small talk. Narcissa didn’t seem at all bothered that Hermione’s mum was a Muggle, and she looked radiant as ever, wearing a dark red dress that beautifully showed off her figure. Harry wondered if Draco got his skinniness from her.

Narcissa noticed that Harry was watching and smiled at him. Harry awkwardly smiled back, and thought that that would be all the interaction they’d have, but she got up and walked over to him, still smiling and smelling of strong perfume.

“I thought I’d wear red as it’s the main Gryffindor colour. What do you think?”

Harry looked her up and down before nodding. “You look lovely.”

“Thank you, Harry. As do you.” Narcissa complemented, sipping her wine and leaving a little red lipstick stain on the glass. 

Harry looked down at what he was wearing and shrugged, it was just a random green shirt and black tie, nothing special. “Thanks.” He replied anyway, feeling awkward so took another large sip of the firewhiskey. He hadn’t really planned talking to Narcissa, considering his relationship with Draco.

“Harry?”

He looked to where he was being called, Ginny now at his side. Harry was thankful she’d shown up, avoiding any conversation about Draco.

“We need you outside.” Without even waiting for Harry’s response, Ginny took his hand and dragged him off to the garden, leaving him to awkwardly look back at Narcissa, mouthing  _ sorry.  _ She didn’t seem too fussed and went back to talking to Hermione’s mum.

“Hello Harry.” Luna smiled at him as she was charming little fairy lights to fly around the garden, glowing slightly pink. It looked romantic in the garden with all the lights, but it could also pass as the New Year’s decorations.

“Everything’s set, all we need is you to sit here looking all depressed to draw Hermione out. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Ginny said and forced Harry to sit down on one of the chairs.

“Ginny.” Luna came over and entwined her hand with her girlfriend’s. “Don’t make his wrackspurts worse.” Ginny giggled and then her and Luna had ran back into the house, presumably to hint Hermione into coming Harry’s way.

Harry sat looking at the charmed fairy lights sparkling and sighed, lifting the firewhiskey bottle to his lips only to find it was empty. He was pathetic, he really was. It was like in everything, he’d forgotten who they were. He was Harry Potter, and Draco was Draco Malfoy after all. From a distance, it was bound to fall apart, and maybe Harry believed for a bit that that wasn’t true.

“Hey, Harry?” 

That was quicker than Harry had expected. Hermione had now sat down next to him, reading him with a worried look.

“I’m fine, Hermione.” He said to save her the trouble of asking. “I want Draco to be happy, and if that’s with Theo then I understand and I won’t get in their way.”

Conveniently, Ron had joined them at that point, giving Harry the perfect timing to get up and leave, patting Ron’s shoulder as he passed to say good luck, without actually saying it out loud and ruining the surprise.

When Harry had returned inside, he found himself steering towards the drinks table to replace his firewhiskey. That was when he noticed that Pansy and Blaise had arrived, greeting Mrs Weasley gladly and handing her an expensive bottle of wine before both of them hugged her. Harry was pleased everyone was getting along, but deep down, he still wanted Draco there.

“Potter!” Pansy yelled loudly, running over and hugging him too. She smelled faintly of alcohol, which really wasn’t surprising. 

“Pansy, leave him alone.” Blaise scolded her, smiling politely at Harry. “Have you heard anything from Draco?”

Harry shook his head, causing Pansy to protest by waving her arms around, nearly hitting Harry in the face.

“That man! Wait until I see him!”

“Wait, you haven’t seen him either?” Harry asked Blaise more than Pansy, because Pansy was currently ranting to herself what she was planning to do when she got her hands on Draco.

“No, we haven’t seen him since he left with Theo.” Blaise told him, looking sympathetic towards Harry before leading Pansy away to a quiet area.

“Harry!”

That put a smile on Harry’s face as he looked down at Teddy tugging on his leg, but the fact that he was crying wiped the smile off of his face quickly.

“What’s wrong?” He asked as he crouched down to Teddy’s level.

“I forgot! I’m so so so so so sorry.” Teddy wailed, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“It’s okay.” Harry said on impulse, pulling Teddy into a hug and rubbing his back. “What did you forget?” He questioned after the hug, gently wiping Teddy’s cheeks.

“The letter Cousin Draco told me to give to you!”

Harry’s eyes widened. “When did Draco give you this letter?”

“Christmas.” Teddy said before reaching into his pocket, pulling out a scrunched up letter and popping it into Harry’s hand.

Harry didn’t know what to do or think. Draco had written to him. What had he said? Was it a letter telling Harry what he already knew? That Draco had chosen Theo? Now Harry didn’t want to read it, yet still found his fingers slowly prying it open.

“Harry! You’re going to miss it!”

The letter could wait, because he was not going to miss this for the world. He rushed over to the window, where all the Weasley kids plus Luna and Fleur were peering out of, watching as Ron got down on one knee and opened the ring box.

The whole room seemed to go silent as everyone patiently waited for Hermione’s reply. Time seemed to have paused, only going back to normal when Hermione cried out “Yes!” and hugged Ron with such force that it sent them both toppling to the ground.

Now that it was done, there was no point keeping it a secret anymore, which meant everyone filled out into the garden to congratulate the newly engaged couple.

Everyone had surrounded the two of them, even Blaise and Pansy, so no one would notice if Harry wasn’t there for a minute or two. He took the opportunity to read the letter while no one was around, that way if he cried, no one would know. He sat down on the sofa, slowly pulling out the parchment and unfolding it.

_ Dear Harry, _

_ It feels weird calling you Harry even now. I’m too used to calling you Potter, or Scarhead or even Lockhart. _

_ I’d like to thank you for lying to the Aurors about Nott Sr’s death, for I am very thankful that I will not be occupying his old cell anytime soon. At least I hope I won’t be, who knows what the Ministry will pull out of the bag next. _

_ I’m sorry I can’t be there, but letters was how our relationship started, so in that respect, I can get away with it, don’t you think? _

The next part had been scribbled out so much that Harry couldn’t even attempt to read what it once said. He’d always noted how every letter Draco had sent never had a mistake before, this was his first crossing out. It made Harry think what on earth it could have said.

_ Merry Christmas _

_ ~Draco _

Harry closed his eyes, trying to compose himself. The letter hadn’t said anything to answer any of Harry’s questions, and Harry didn’t even know where the git was to send a reply.

Someone had come back inside, and Harry had to open his eyes, seeing Hermione stood in front of him.

“This time no one needed to send me to see you.” She joked, sitting down next to him to peer at the letter. “Ah.” was all she could say about it.

Harry quickly put the letter away and turned to his best friend. “I’m sorry, we should be talking about you, Mrs future Weasley.”

Hermione blushed and looked down at the ring on her finger. “I think I’m going to be Mrs Granger-Weasley.”

“Really?” Harry shouldn’t have been surprised, this was Hermione anyway. “Congratulations, by the way, it’s taken him long enough to ask.” He smiled, not forced but genuine. He was genuinely happy for her and Ron. It felt good to be happy.

“He didn’t even ask, just kind of got the ring out and hoped that it asked for him.” 

Harry laughed at that. Typical Ron.

“Come outside, Harry. It’s midnight in five minutes and George is excited for everyone to see the fireworks.” Hermione took Harry’s hand and together they went back into the garden. Harry was excited to see the fireworks too, George’s fireworks always the best. Even Andromeda had let Teddy stay up for them, they were that good.

It was cold outside, but no one seemed to mind. Everyone was all smiles and ready to welcome the New Year.

“Harry.” Andromeda had joined Harry by his side. “I think you should go to the yard.” She told him.

Harry frowned, completely confused as to why she wanted him to go to the yard, but nevertheless, he did as he was told. As he walked through the house, he could have grabbed his jacket, sure that his nipples were showing through his shirt from how cold it was, but he didn’t, probably because the slight alcohol and high emotions rendered him incapable of thinking straight.

It was dark outside in the yard, with no lights like the garden, but even so, Harry could faintly see three people by the garage. It was two men and a woman, judging by their silhouettes. One of the men was tall and heavily built while the other man was the same height but a lot skinnier, hugging the woman while the heavily built man stood further back. With the sound of music and chatter, Harry couldn’t hear what they anyone was saying.

As Harry got closer, he could tell that the woman was Narcissa, and the skinny man… No, it wasn’t. Harry’s eyes were just tricking him.

The heavily built man noticed Harry, tapping Narcissa on the shoulder who then motioned for the skinny man to turn around, and when he did, Harry was either going mad, or his eyes really weren’t tricking him.

Somehow, his legs started moving faster, so now he was running towards the three people, and the skinny man was running too. Running towards Harry. Their bodies slammed into each others hard, the two of them gripping onto one another. Harry recognised the smell, and now that his eyes had properly adjusted, he could really see who it was.

“We’ll leave you both to it.” Narcissa said quietly as she walked away with Gregory Goyle, but Harry didn’t really notice, because Draco was here. Draco.

“I’m sorry. Merlin, I’m so sorry.” Draco mumbled into Harry’s neck as he gripped Harry’s hair. Harry felt himself sink into Draco’s hold before he realised what he was actually doing and quickly shoved him away. “Where have you been?”

“I’ve been staying with Greg, I hadn’t seen him in a while.” Draco said, taking a step towards Harry only for Harry to take a step back.

“Don’t you dare just waltz back like I haven’t been going mad for the past couple of weeks, since no one has seen you! And your way of contacting me is through a three year old, not their Grandmother or even an  _ owl!  _ What are you even doing here?!” Harry felt better for yelling, getting it all out of his system, but the look on Draco’s face didn’t make it as good as it should have been. Why was he feeling  _ bad? _

“I had to speak to my mother. Apologise for everything.” Draco explained, a hand running through his hair as his grey eyes looked straight at Harry, his beautiful glistening grey eyes.

“Right, so you weren’t here to see me. I don’t know why I even bother.” Harry turned away from him and started to walk away, his heart aching with every step he took.

“Harry, don’t be stupid. Of course I came to see you too.” Draco said, grabbing Harry’s hand to stop him from walking. “Look at me.” Harry didn’t want to, because if he did, he probably wouldn’t be able to control his emotions.

“I’ll save you the trouble. I understand you want to be with Theo, so I’ll go get your wand then you can leave.” Harry was trying to hold himself together, but his eyes were filling with tears. Fuck, this hurt.

Nevertheless, he continued walking back to the house. He’d left Draco’s wand in his jacket, that he now really regretted bringing with him, that way he wouldn’t have Draco call after him as he practically ran back to the house. He finally reached his jacket and fumbled around with it before managing to pull out the wand.

“Here.” He shoved the wand into Draco’s hand, forcing himself to look up into those grey eyes. “See you around.” Harry had never realised he could walk that fast, but here he was, standing in the Weasley’s garden with a tear rolling down his cheek. Hermione turned towards him, about to walk over but stopped. Harry had no idea why she’d stopped until he felt himself being spun around and ending up face to face with Draco again.

“Harry Potter.” He spoke with such a stern tone, using one finger to lift Harry’s head up so now he had no way of looking away. “It’s you I want.” Draco’s eyes wouldn’t stay still, constantly flicking between each of Harry’s eyes because they were that close. “You.” He added for emphasis.

Harry blinked. He couldn’t take it in. “What?” He searched Draco’s face for answers. He didn’t understand. “But Theo-”

“Theo wants to go travelling, catch up on everything he’s missed.” Draco interrupted, his other hand now holding onto Harry’s hand. “We agreed straight away that it wouldn’t work out, we’re different people now. He could hear everything for those three years, and well, he knew.”

“And he’s okay with that?” Harry asked, still not entirely confident that this was actually happening.

“Yeah.” Draco nodded, the hand on Harry’s chin moving to Harry’s cheek, cupping it gently. “And if he did care, it wouldn’t change anything. I want you.”

“Really?” Harry was still unsure, he’d spent weeks telling himself that Draco had chosen Theo, and now the idiot had turned up wanting Harry. Plus, Harry was drunk, he didn’t know what was going on.

The next thing Harry knew, Draco had pulled him closer and kissed him hard. Harry’s eyes were wide, and he didn’t know what to do with his arms, or anything. His mind was screaming  _ Draco Draco Draco Draco. _

There was cheering, which Harry didn’t care about. The only thing he was currently caring about was Draco in front of him, kissing him. It was the fireworks going off, however, that made Harry jump and pull away. Draco’s face was glowing now with the multicolour light from the fireworks shining down on them, and Harry couldn’t believe he was this lucky.

“Happy New Year, Harry.”

“Happy New Year, Draco.” Harry replied. He grinned widely, and so did Draco.

Harry looked back to Hermione and Ron, who were both beaming his direction. Harry grinned back before a body slammed into his, knocking him off balance and nearly causing him to land on the floor. He turned to see that Pansy had hit Draco, who had collided with Harry on impact, and now she was scolding Draco like a child. Blaise gently led her away, smiling at both of them, and even Goyle gave his approval with a nod in their direction.

Luna and Ginny were grinning at them, then at one another. Narcissa and Molly looked like they couldn’t be prouder, both of them whispering in each other’s ear.

Harry felt on top of the world right now, his hand in Draco’s and watching the fireworks with his family around him. They may not be his family by blood, but they were the best family anyone could ask for, and Harry was thankful that it was so big.

He was getting sappy now, most likely the alcohol turning his brain to mush, but when he looked at Draco, and Draco looked back at Harry, he just  _ knew. _

Everything was going to be alright.

“Your hangover is going to be horrific tomorrow.”

Apart from that. That was going to be far from alright.

_ FIN _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's it!! idk im still not 100% happy but what can you do?? was thinking about writing a little add on with what draco did while at Greg's but it'd just be him mopping around and missing his harry!!  
> anyway!! a new story should be coming soon (ish) but imma let you decide which one:  
> 1\. a holiday fic with bed shares and banter, it's all humour really  
> or 2. a murder mystery auror partners which is all mysterious and angst  
> you decide!!! (message me on tumblr @dracomalfoyl if you wanna talk further idk)


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